Warriors Hearth
by bbbvccvt
Summary: The world is being threatened by the Corrupt minds of Laciena. Can our Heroes save the lands and the world! rated T for minor language and a bit of violence
1. Exile

"Stand your ground and fight!"

"coward!"

"Kill her!"

The taunting cries from behind Konata grew and became louder by the minute.

"Damn it, what did I ever do?" Konata muttered as she ran wthrough the woods as she fled from the Placinian soldiers.

It was now a few hours past noon and was a dark, gloomy day. As Konata ran further through the woods, she pulled out her shortsword to hack away at the undergrowth in front of her.

----------------

An hour earlier, Konata had been in the market district in Placina, the Capitol of Laciena. The market district was packed with people almost 24/7, if you wanted to buy something, you would go here. While looking around for something interesting, she had heard shouts of pain coming from behind her. She soon realized that soldiers were coming but did not mind as she had not done anything wrong.

"Hey you, the girl with the blue hair and the shortsword, are you Konata?" said the man at the front of the squad of soldiers. The soldiers were dressed In robes with no apparent armor on, probably to make moving easier and had longswords.

"Yes my lord?" Konata replied as she put her money away into her black robes

Suddenly the man in front of the soldiers, a captain, pulled out his longsword and slashed at Konata. Konata quickly dodged the slash and pulled out her shortsword.

"Under the name of the great king, his lordship Takeyama, we have been ordered to execute you" the captain announced as he took another quick slash at Konata.

"Whoa!" Konata exclaimed as the blade came inches from her face.

She jumped away further as she started to run. Even with her excellent skills as a swordsman, there was no way she could fight the dozen or so trained soldiers.

The pursuit started as Konata ran out of the market district and headed for the residential district, hoping she could hide in someones house.

As soon as she ran out of the market district and went to the residential district, she saw to her dismay that there were already soldiers positioned outside. She then ran for the front gates which were luckily unguarded.

--------------------

Now she was running through the woods with several dozen soldiers chasing her.

As she ran on, one soldier started to catch up to her, when Konata looked around he was closing the distance between them fast. He came closer and closer but as he took out his sword, he let out a piercing scream, then a gurgle as an arrow flew out of nowhere and hit him in the chest.

Knowing that whoever shot him could possibly have been aiming for her, Konata started zigzagging and continued on

She ran through the forest at amazing speeds despite her small and almost fragile looking body. Konata was probably the best swordsman in town, also a notorious thief.

As Konata ran, she tried to figure out why she was being chased. She hadn't stolen anything in several weeks and she had never been seen stealing either so she didn't think that was why.

"Oh crap!" Konata yelled as she saw the drop of a cliff ahead of her.

Deep in her thoughts, Konata had not been paying attention to her surroundings.

She tried to slow down as much as she could but couldn't stop fast enough.

She flew off the edge.

"There's no way in hell she could have survived that" said the captain as he came up to the edge.

"I guess this is mission accomplished then" said another captain.

---------------------

"Ugh..." Konata moaned as she slowly sat up

"That was one big fall..." Miyuki said as she bandaged Konatas leg

"When did you get here? And how did you find me?" Konata asked as she saw that they were in a cave. Miyuki was wearing a dark green robe as usual and still had her bow and quiver on her.

"I was in the woods hunting and the soldiers came and tried to kill me too, I managed to hide but then I saw that one soldier getting near you so I shot him. I then saw you fall off the cliff. " Miyuki replied

"So that arrow was you?"

"Yes, I was slightly worried that I might hit you but I guess my aim was good" Miyuki said with a smile

"Ugh my head hurts"

"Here, swallow these herbs" Miyuki said as she handed Konata some green leaves

Konata put the leaves in her mouth and started chewing while making a disgusted face.

"You sure that was the right one? it was the bitterest herb I've ever tasted" Konata said after she swallowed

"Yes, they work very well though"

"Whatever I want to rest more" Konata said as she put her head down again

-----------------------

"Onee-chan!!" Tsukasa yelled as her sister hacked another soldier down

"Run Tsukasa! I'll hold them off for another minute and I'll follow you" Kagami yelled as she saw another dozen soldiers run at her.

Tsukasa turned and ran deeper into the forest as her sister had told her to.

"come and try to get me..." Kagami muttered as she braced herself for the inevitable charge the soldiers would make.

"Kill her!" the man in front yelled as he charged Kagami

"Idiots..." Kagami said as she took out a dagger from her leg and threw it at the man's stomach, the dagger was perfectly aimed and got the man right in the gut. The man crumpled as more men rushed Kagami. She lifted her long sword and thrust it into the man closest to her. Another man came up from behind and tried to slash at Kagamis head, she ducked and pulled out a short sword from her hip and stabbed the man through the chest as she used her long sword to block a slash from her right.

"Damn it, I might be overpowered" Kagami muttered as she kicked the man who she blocked in the groin and started running.

Kagami quickly sheathed both her swords and retrieved the dagger as she started running after Tsukasa.

"Don't let her get away!"

"Kill her and you get as much gold as her head weighs!"

The cries were now getting desperate as the remaining men starting chasing after Kagami

After running for several minutes and making sure that she had lost the soldiers. She finally let herself slow down as she was tiered from fighting the soldiers and running. She then saw several branches snapped at the tips as she walked through the forest. This was the mark that Tsukasa always put to signify that she was around here.

"Tsukasa!" Kagami yelled

"Over here onee-chan" Tsukasa's voice said from Kagami's left side

Kagami started walking and suddenly tripped into a hole in the ground

"Ow, that hurt" Kagami said as she rubbed her legs

"I thought this was a good hiding spot" Tsukasa said

"Well I definitely didn't see it" Kagami remarked

"Did you get hurt?" Tsukasa asked as she pulled out her medical bag

"A few scratches is all but treat them, just to be safe. I'm lucky I had even the leather armor I have on right now, they prevented alot more minor cuts" Kagami said as she took her leather shirt off so Tsukasa could see the cuts.

-------------------------

"Do you know what happened?" Konata asked as she and Miyuki walked through the woods. Konata had her hands on her sword while Miyuki held her bow and had a arrow loaded.

"Nothing that I can tell, just that the two of us were to be executed for some reason..." Miyuki said

"For some reason, I don't think going back to Placina would be a good idea" Konata remarked as she cut a apple off a branch and started eating it.

"We'll probably have to camp out here for the night, preferably as far away from the capital as possible" Miyuki remarked

"Well we still have some time until sunset so let's try to build camp somewhere near here, we're pretty far from the capital already" Konata said as she started hacking away at small saplings to make a shelter.

"Would you mind making the shelter? I'll go hunt for some food" Miyuki said as she picked up her bow and started walking into the woods

"Sigh, I was supposed to get my paycheck today..." Konata mumbled as she started cutting another sapling.

"I wonder what we'll have for dinner?" Konata asked herself after five minutes of chopping saplings

"How does some chicken sound?" Miyuki said as she walked back

"What?! Your back already?" Konata exclaimed

"Well I walked about 100 feet and a bird was walking around so I shot it, it looks like a turkey but I don't think it is..." Miyuki replied

"I haven't done anything since you left" Konata said "I only cut another two saplings..."

--------------------

"Ow this stings" Kagami complained as they rested in the hole that Tsukasa had found.

The hole was a decntly sized hole, more like a cave under the ground. Almost 6'x6' and slightly over 4 feet high.

The surrounding walls were made from some kind of rock so there probably wasn't any danger of the sides collapsing in.

"Well I had to apply the antibiotics and sew up the cut on your arm, it was pretty deep, more like a gash" Tsukasa replied

"Really? It stung but not that much. By the way, do we have any food?" Kagami asked

"Well I have some bread and ham but not much else" Tsukasa replied

"Oh, I'll go hunt some then"

"Absolutely not! I'm skeptical as to whether I should even let you move around tomorrow but you will absolutely not move tonight with all those wounds" Tsukasa commanded

"Tsukasa, you're over reacting. I can move around fine" Kagami said as she tried to get into a crouched position with her arm

"OW" Kagami yelled as her arm started to burn and sting

"See? Rest up for today and move around tomorrow" Tsukasa advised

-------------

"What are we going to do tomorrow?" Konata asked

"Well, knowing the surrounding area, I think that our best option would be to travel southeast towards izanic. It's only about 25 miles from Placina so we should be somewhere along those lines too" Miyuki replied after taking out a small map

"Izanic? But isn't that a village?" Konata asked "The Village of Izanic?"

"Well the name is 'village' but it's more like a town" Miyuki replied "It has over several hundred people"

"Oh ok, anyways this chicken is good" Konata remarked as she bit into her drumstick "Worth the pain of taking the feathers off and gutting it"

Konata had managed to build a quick shelter, a lean-to, for the two and they were currently eating the un-named bird Miyuki had hunted.

"It's a good thing that we didn't have any family in Placina, or they would have worried when we disapeared" Miyuki said as she stared at the small fire they had made

"But I don't get my paycheck today so I still feel like I lost something" Konata complained.

"Anyways we'll get up early and leave as soon as we can, preferably before sunrise as the soldiers are less likely to be looking for us that early" Miyuki advised

"Ok, you'll have to wake me though, I'm used to waking up near noon" Konata said as she went into her lean-to

"just don't stay up all night" Miyuki said as she put out the fire and went into her lean-to

-------------------

"Where would we go if we can't return home?" Tsukasa asked as she put a piece of bread in her mouth

"I don't know, let's try going to Slagon to the southwest, it's got a port In town so news should travel there fast. We might even be able to figure out why we suddenly got chased out of the capital" Kagami thoughtfully said

"We didn't even do anything wrong..." Tsukasa mumbled

"maybe we were mistaken for someone else?" Kagami suggested

"But they specifically said our names, onee-chan" Tsukasa reminded

"Oh ya..." Kagami sheepishly said while taking a bite out of her ham

"We should try to leave here as early as we can. The earlier we leave, the more likely that we can sneak out before the Placinian soldiers come to try to find us" Tsukasa suggested.

"Good idea, just make sure you wake up ok?"

"Ok. Anyways I'm going to sleep. I'm pretty tired anyways" Tsukasa said while yawning

"You're tired? I should be the one yawning" Kagami laughed but Tsukasa was already asleep.

"Guess I'll sleep too" Kagami muttered as she closed her eyes.

Author: TLD is a failure T.T

Konata: what's TLD?

Author: oh nothing

Miyuki: but wasn't Konata falling from the cliff and surviving a bit unrealistic?

Author: well I said she fell on a tree, then onto a bush right?

Miyuki: well...

Tsukasa: what's my weapon?

Author: you don't have one, just a dagger for your medical uses, your a NC

Tsukasa: NC?

Author: google it...

Tsukasa: what's google?

*This story takes place in the medieval-ish time period, google doesn't exist*


	2. separate ways

"We'll have to first head southwards, we should then eventually hit the sea. From there we can just follow the coast and we'll get to Slagon" Kagami said as she and Tsukasa started to head out

"How long will it take?"

"Well it's about 30 miles out so if we walk hard from now, sunrise, to sundown, we should be able to get there today." Kagami informed

"We have to walk that much?"

"I suggest you get used to it, I think we're going to be walking alot now."

Today was sunny and pleasant unlike yesterday when it was dark and gloomy. Slagon was located by the sea, almost directly south but the land curved inland, then back out again.

"If we walk for 3 or4 hours then stop for some food, then continue for another 3 or 4 hours, I think we'll reach Slagon by evening, rather than nightfall" Kagami said as she walked ahead of Tsukasa

"Maybe we can buy some things if the market is still open" Tsukasa thoughtfully said as she sped up herself

-------------------------

"How much longer?" Konata moaned... for the billionth time

"It's only been about three hours since we set out" Miyuki gently said

"But my legs are killing me! And I'm hungry" Konata complained but she was mostly complaining for the sake of complaining.

"Let's take a rest in a hour or so" Miyuki suggested

"Ok, that sounds good"

The two were now walking along a plain now. Try had gotten out of the forest about 10 minutes ago. The plain was full of wild grass and had the occasional pockets of flowers

"Thank god I don't have allergies" Konata remarked as she walked through a flower patch

"I've never had allergies either, fortunately" Miyuki stated

The two continued on and admired the surrounding scenery of it's beauty. As they walked however, Konata looked back and saw something.

"Hey what are those?" Konata asked

"What?" Miyuki said as she stopped and turned around.

As Miyuki was an archer, her eyes were naturally sharper then Konatas

"I... I think those are soldiers?" Miyuki slowly said with slight confusion

"Well I think our slow walk might not be a good idea" Konata remarked as she crouched and started running ahead.

"Indeed..." Miyuki said as she followed Konata

--------------

"Their still following us?" Kagami asked as she ran further ahead

"I don't think they've seen us, just that theyre looking in the area" Tsukasa said as she followed closely behind her sister

"Didn't they get the message yesterday? If they try to get us, they only massacre themselves" Kagami snorted as she jumped elegantly over a fallen log

"Kya!" Tsukasa yelled as she tripped on the same log

Kagami stopped and started running back to Tsukasa

"Tell me if I'm going too fast for you" Kagami said as she helped her sister up

"No, it's just I wasn't focused for a second" Tsukasa said with embarrasment

"Well let's go now, I don't think we can just go 'oh ya she tripped, can you give us a few minutes' to the soldiers can we?" Kagami asked as she started jogging this time, "Look on the bright side, with all this running, we'll only get to Slagon faster"

"I guess..." Tsukasa replied

---------------------------

"Do you think they gave up?" Konata asked as she and Miyuki sat by a stream

"I believe so, I haven't seen a trace of them for half an hour" Miyuki replied

It was now slightly past noon

"Then how about some lunch?" Konata excitedly asked as she went to collect firewood

"I guess" Miyuki sighed as she got her arrows and went into the forest

As she walked out with her arrow loaded, she saw a rabbit sitting still and eating something.

"Sorry little bunny" Miyuki said with slight sadness in her voice as she released the bow. The arrow went right through the head and instantaniously killed the rabbit. "Well at least I made sure it didn't suffer"

As she headed back to the stream, she smelled fire. Konata had apparently gotten the fire going.

"Hey Miyuki, whatcha got?" Konata asked as she fed large sticks into the fire.

"A rabbit, it's a pretty big one so I thought one was enough for both of us, alot of meat on it too"

"Ok, let's have rabbit stew!"

"Where are we going to get the pot?" Miyuki asked

"I found a old pot when I was looking for wood, I washed it pretty well and the fire should disinfect it anyways" Konata replied "And we have some veggies left"

"If you have it, feel free"

"Yay!" Konata exclaimed as she started skinning the rabbit

----------------

"I wish I had a bow right about now..." Kagami muttered as she sat still, looking at an extremely plump rabbit hop accross the meadow about 60 feet in front of her "I can't aim my daggers that far..."

She sighed and gave up as she stood up to look for a different source of food.

"I wonder what Tsukasa is doing?" Kagami thought as she walked back towards the big tree that they had decided to camp by for lunch.

As she walked along,, her eyes caught a slight movement to her left. She quickly pulled out a dagger and threw it at what she hoped was another rabbit. She looked around to see that she had just thrown her knife clean through a rabbits neck

"There's way too many rabbits out here" Kagami remarked as she picked up her prize and walked back to camp.

After getting back and telling Tsukasa how she had got the rabbit, Tsukasa remarked "Wow your reflexes are extremely good!"

"Thanks" Kagami smiled "So is lunch just fire roasted rabbit?"

"Well I have some seasonings so we can put some flavor" Tsukasa replied as she took some spices out

"Ok that's good" Kagami replied as she took out her dagger to skin the rabbit

-------------------

"Wow that stew was good" Konata said as she patted her stomach

"We should get going now" Miyuki informed "It's a bit past noon so if we leave now, we should be at Izanic before sundown"

"I feel like just sleeping right now" Konata mumbled

"A nice comfy bed or the hard ground" Miyuki asked

"Ok ok, I get your point" Konata complained as she got up and started walking.

"So what do we do when we get to izanic?" Konata questioned

"For now, I say we just try to figure out what's going on and try to head as far south, as fast as possible" Miyuki replied

"So another 4 or 5 hours of walking?"

"The bed or hard ground"

"You sure know how to convince me" Konata laughed

------------

"I see it onee-chan!" Tsukasa suddenly yelled excitedly

"See what?"

"The ocean, we must be getting close to slagon now"

"So we finally hit sea? I smelled it in the air but it took awhile to actually see it" Kagami said

"Whatever, we can almost rest!" Tsukasa dreamily said "My legs are dead tired"

"Walking is good excercise too you know"

"Well I guess" Tsukasa mumbled

"Should only be another hour or two if I calculated right" Kagami stated

-------------

"This is izanic?" Konata asked with disappontment

"Well it is technically the 'village' of izanic"

The two girls now stood outside the front gates of izanic. Izanic was a relatively peaceful and calm town. Several hundred people resided here but the main point was it's trade center, which was the largest for quite a few number of miles.

"Well, let's go now" Miyuki said as she walked into town

"I wonder what kind of food they have here..." Konata pondered as she followed Miyuki

The two first went to the Inn to rent a room. As the inn doubled as a general store, Konata went to the shop to look at it's assortment of goods

"Hmm, I likes these daggers..." Konata said as she looked through the selections of weapons. "Even has some dart frog poison on the tip..."

After looking through her wallet, Konata bought 2 of the poison tipped daggers. "I also need some cooking utencils..." Konata muttered

She walked over to the travel isle to look for several portable pots and utencils.

"What's this? A all-in-one travelers cooking set? Sounds lame but I guess I can buy it" Konata said as she bought the kit.

"Having fun?" Miyuki asked as she came up from behind Konata

"Gah! Don't sneak up on me" Konata complained "And I bought these daggers, poison tipped too"

"Oh, just make sure you don't accidently use those to cut your food" Miyuki joked

"Haha very funny"

----------------

"The bed feels so luxurious after walking for so many hours" Tsukasa sighed as she sunk into their rooms bed

"You going to stay here? I'm going to check out the market" Kagami said

"No, I'll go too" Tsukasa replied as she got up and put on her shoes

Slagon was mostly a port town so the main treade was fish but also had a extensive stock on other needs. As the girls got closer to the market, the smell of dead fish and sweat strengthened.

"I can understand the fish but can't they do something about the sweaty smell?" Tsukasa complained.

"Well the sailors do stay out at sea for weeks, even months at a time so it makes sense that it smells" Kagami replied

"Look at how many things they have for sale" Tsukasa exclaimed as she walked through the stalls, "I haven't ever actually seen some of these spices and herbs before, I haven't seen this medicinal root before either"

"If you want, you can browse this area and I'll go look for something else" Kagami suggested but Tsukasa was already in her own world

Kagami went further along the stalls, eventually stopping by the weapons and armor area.

"Hmm, I like this two-hander..." Kagami said as she hefted a sword that was on display. "Nice weight, sturdy, nicely balanced. Maybe I'll buy it"

"If you purchase that with an armor set, you get 15% off of both items" the sales person said

"Oh really? Let me look at your armor then" Kagami said as she walked over to another side of the stall. "How much is this light steel set?" Kagami asked

"3000 gold pieces" the salesperson replied

"Deal" Kagami said as she pulled out 30 100gold piece coins "It makes my pocket less heavier anyways"

As Kagami walked back with her new purchases, she saw Tsukasa still looking through the stalls

"Hey you just going to stare at those?" Kagami asked

"Huh? Oh, I'll have those and some of this too" Tsukasa told the salesperson

"Were sort of running low on money now" Tsukasa said as she and Kagami walked back into their room. "I only have about 2000 gold left"

"Same here, I bought some new armor and a weapon today" Kagami said as she patted the hilt of her sword "My armor was pretty expensive too"

"Let's eat something, not too expensive for today" Tsukasa suggested

"Sounds good"

----------------

"You know, this dagger is really nice, it's durable, effective, and lightweight" Konata said as she fiddled with her dagger in bed

"You should actually sleep, I want to get to dwight early tommorow so were leaving earlier and the distance is longer then it was from where we started to izanic." Miyuki suggested

"Sleeping feels like a waste..." Konata mumbled but put her head down to sleep.

-------------

Author: so... Sleepy.., fell asleep 3 times while writing chapter2

Konata: isn't that bad?

Author: you think? And sorry for anything that doesn't make amy sense, I'm half asleep right now

Miyuki: you should get at least 6 hours of sleep, possibly 7 or 8 at your age

Author: how do you know my age?!?

Miyuki: I have my ways *smile*

Author: do I want to know...?


	3. Rough Start

"What's up with the large group of people outside?" Tsukasa asked as Kagami put on her armor.

"What?"

"There's almost a mob of people outside the Inn" Tsukasa replied

"Let me see" Kagami said as she walked to the window "I think we should leave through the backdoor"

"What are they there for?" Tsukasa asked as she and Kagami left the room

"There they are!!"

"Get them! We'll split the reward!"

"Who is that?" Kagami muttered "Oh..."

Kagami grabbed Tsukasa's hand and started running

"Wha-?" Tsukasa exclaimed

"They're here for us! Were wanted, remember?" Kagami yelled as she ran through the halls "The poster with our faces is even up on the halls!"

"Damn it we have to jump" Kagami muttered as she opened a window

"What? I have to jump out this window?"

"it's only a story high, you'll live" Kagami said as she hopped out the window

"But it's high..."

"Right there! By the window!" a shout came from behind

"Wha-?" Tsukasa said as she looked behind her

"Kya!" she yelled as she saw 3 burly men running towards her.

"Kill her, we only need the head for our prize!"

"Oh no" Tsukasa muttered as she jumped out the window and rolled out

"Come on hurry!" Kagami yelled as she grabbed Tsukasa's hand and started running

------------------------

"Why do we still have to be chased?" Konata complained as they ran out of the city doors.

"I guess word reached the town last night" Miyuki said as she swiftly ran along Konata

"What's our price?"

"I think it's 1,000,000 gold"

"Wow that's alot... Why are we worth so much?"

"I wish I knew"

"Maybe because were so pretty, the king wants us" Konata joked as she ran into the forest

"Except they're trying to kill us"

The two ran from the mob of people behind them. The crowd had several dozen men with swords, pitchforks, spears, or anything else that was sharp and could kill.

"Let's get to Dwight for now, it's south of here, another days walk but considering our circumstances, I think we should get as far away from Placina as possible" Miyuki said as she ran

"How many miles?"

"Another 50-ish miles, I don't remember from the top of my head but close enough that we can get there today."

"Alrite let's head to Dwight" Konata declared

--------------------

"I think we lost them" Kagami panted as she and Tsukasa slowed down to a stop

"You... Think... So?" Tsukasa wheezed

"Your really out of shape you know" Kagami pointed out, "But I think it's safe, we've been running for about 30 minutes and I haven't seen a trace of them for the last 10"

"Ok, can we please rest?"

"Let's find somewhere better, look for a stream, I heard running water a bit earlier so there should be a stream or river nearby" Kagami said as she took off her steel chainmail, "This thing weighs way too much for me to be running around with it on, especially with the swords and platelegs"

"What time Is it?" Tsukasa asked as she got up to look for a stream

"judging by the sun, i'de say... Maybe 10 or 11?" Kagami said as she looked up at the sky

The girls had managed to yet again escape the pursuers. They were now on a slightly hilly plain. Due to the haste of their departure, they didn't really know where they were either.

"We should head southwest from here" Kagami said to herself as she took off her steel leggings, "Thank god I bought the light armor set and not the heavy one... I would have died if I got those"

Kagami sat down on the grass after taking her armor off, she was now in her regular clothes, brown shorts and a light blue, striped t-shirt. She rested her head on the soft ground below and closed her eyes.

"How many times can we be lucky without our luck running out?"

Kagami started to fall asleep when Tsukasa came back.

"Onee-chan, there's a small stream about 50yards out" Tsukasa said as she plopped herself down next to her bigger twin sister

"Alright let's just Settle there for a hour or two and figure out a where we're going" Kagami said as she picked up her equipment and started walking in the way Tsukasa had come

After putting all their stuff down, Kagami took her clothes off and took a quick dip in the stream. The stream could actually have been considered a small river, several feet deep and about 10 feet wide.

"Where should we head next? Tsukasa asked after she got a small fire started by the banks of the stream.

"Well since we want to get as far away from Placina as possible, I would say our next bet is Dwight." Kagami answered

"Dwight? Where exactly is it?"

"You should really learn some local geography" Kagami joked as she started to get out of the stream, "it's southwest of here, a days walk"

"Another day long walk?"

"Get used to it" Kagami replied

-----------

"is that Dwight?" Konata asked as they saw a small town up ahead of them.

"I believe so, I may have been slightly off with my calculations but eiter way, we're very close"

"Well let's find out!" Konata exclaimed as she ran ahead

As the two came up to the town, they saw a sign that said "Welcome to Dwight"

"Yup I'm pretty sure this is the one..." Konata said with exagerated doubt

"Come on lets go" Miyuki said as she pulled Konata, who had her eyes glued to the sign

-------------------

"Pant, pant, pant"

"You really need to get in shape" Kagami told her younger sister

"I'm... Not used to... Long walks..." Tsukasa replied as she stumbled to the front gates of Dwight

"Well at least we're finally here" Kagami said as she looked around for the Inn

After asking a few people she found the Inn. As the two went in, Tsukasa sat down at a table and Kagami went up to the bulletin board

------------------

Konata walked into the Inn as she scanned the room for the bulletin board. After she found it, she saw Miyuki sitting next to a purple haired girl and talking to her. Not really minding, she went up to the bulletin board.

-------------

Kagami looked through the bulletin board, wondering if their faces were up with a big "WANTED" painted on, as she scanned the board, she saw another girl come up to the board. The girl had long blue hair a black Gi on and... A short sword with several daggers?

What was a girl her size doing with a sword and daggers? Curious she tried to see the girl's face

--------------

As Konata looked through the bulletin board, she realized the girl standing next to her looking at her. She turned her face to ask if she could help her.

"Eh? Have I seen you before?" both girls said at the same time as they saw each others face

"Wait a minute..." the purple haired girl said

"YOURE ON THAT WANTED POSTER!!!" Konata exclaimed as she took a involentary step back

"WELL SO ARE YOU!!" the other girl yelled as she drew her long sword

"What the hell did you do that got me into this?!" Konata yelled as she pulled her short sword out too

The people in the Inn were startled at the sudden shouting and quickly got out when they saw the swords drawn.

-----------------

"What do you mean what did I do?!" Kagami demanded at the blue haired girl

"You probably did something stupid which got me involved somehow!" the small girl answered

"Onee-chan! Calm down and put that sword away!" Tsukasa yelled as she ran to Kagami and grabbed her hands

"Please Konata, think rationally" said a pink haired girl that Kagami also recognized as the other wanted person.

"But this girl is probably the reason we got in this mess!" the blue haired girl, apparently called Konata, answered

"Onee-chan, can't we just talk about this?" Tsukasa pleaded

"But SHE's the one who caused this trouble!" Kagami retorted.

"Me? ME?!" Konata yelled

The pink haired girl suddenly moved with amazing speed and knocked the sword out of both Konata and Kagami's hand.

"Would you both just let the other talk without threats?" the still nameless girl asked with slight impatience

"But Miyuki...!"

"So her names Miyuki..." Kagami thought

"Onee-chan just sit down and calm down"

"Konata, just be calm about this and we can figure out what's going on" Miyuki said as she guided Konata to a table

---------

Konata looked at Miyuki, then at the two nameless girls and back to Miyuki again

"Well why don't you two first tell me what your names are then?" Konata asked with slight animosity in her voice

"I'm Tsukasa, she's my older sister, Kagami" the girl with short haired said as she pointed to herself, then to the other girl

"Well why are you on the poster then?" Kagami asked

"I don't know! I thought it was your fault!" Konata yelled again

Kagami's hand instinctively reached for her sword but slowly took her hands away

"Stop assuming that it's our fault because we have absolutely no idea either" Kagami replied as calmly as she could

"Well then why would we be on the poster with a reward of 1,000,000 gold?"

"You think I would be asking if I knew?" Kagami replied

"You two are going around in circles, your getting nowhere" Miyuki said

"Can you please try talking?" Tsukasa asked

"Why are we talking?" both Konata and Kagami asked at the same time

"Because both of you seem to be the boss of the both our groups" Miyuki replied "now what are we going to do?"

"Figure out why the hell is going on is what I'm going to do" Konata said

"Doesn't help much" Miyuki remarked

"Well if we all don't know what's going on, let's stick together. It would let us learn more too" Tsukasa suggested

"Hmph" Konata said as she turned her head

"Like I'm going to bear with this brat"

"What?!" Konata yelled

"Onee-chan..."

"Sorry"

"Ok then since neither of you seem to be able to decide, I say we stick together for now as Tsukasa suggested and travel together for now" Miyuki said "Was that so hard?"

"Fine..." Konata finally gave in

"Only because it's going to let us figure this out quicker" Kagami muttered.

"Then it's settled" Miyuki happily said as she clapped her hands together "just hope no one heard our conversation but I think the chances are almost nothing as everyone left when you two drew your swords"

Konata suddenly trust out her hands at Kagami

"We have an agreement right?" Konata asked

"Well..." Kagami replied but shook the hand anyways

"Anyways let's go get a room, if the owner is still here that is" Miyuki said

--------------------

"Onee-chan, you shouldn't go for your sword so readily" Tsukasa said as she and Kagami sat in their room. Konata and Miyuki were in the room next door.

"I still don't trust them very much.."

"You don't have to, but please try to work with them"

"Why are you standing up so much for them?

"Ehehe... Well I was talking to Miyuki before and she's a really nice person to know so I guess... Ehehe..." Tsukasa said

"You think everyone a nice person" Kagami replied with a slight laugh

"Ehehe..."

------------------

"I swear, If that bi-"

"You know she's right next door right?" Miyuki interupted

Konata only grumbled.

The argument had ended without any blood being drawn and it had been decided that the four would go to Sumor next, approximately 60 miles south.

"She's lucky you came in when you did, or I would have cut her up into so many pieces..." Konata grumbled again.

"But you didn't"

"Whatever..."

--------------------

Author: rough start eh?

Konata: not my fault

Kagami: are you blaming it on me? *glare*

Tsukasa: onee-chan...

Kagami: sorry

Miyuki: just try not to go at each others throat ok?

Author: can't have you two killing each other, the story wouldnt develop if you did!


	4. Close Call

"Hey Kagami, Tsukasa, wake up" said a voice from Kagamis door.

"She's really a brat..." Kagami muttered as she got out of bed and woke Tsukasa up

"Five more minutes... I'm serious" Tsukasa mumbled

"Come on, get up." Kagami said as she went to get dressed

----------------

"Where are they?" Konata wondered as she took a bite out of her toast

"Hello Miyuki" Kagami said politely as she came down to eat.

"Yup, just ignore my exisistence" Konata muttered

"What's that?" Tsukasa asked as she came to their table

"Oh nothing" Konata replied "Anyways, good morning Tsukasa"

"Same to you too Konata" Tsukasa replied as she got toast herself

"So were going to try to get to Sumor today but we're going to have to go at a quick pace to reach it." Miyuki informed

"We should start as soon as we finish breakfast" Kagami suggested

"That's what I'm planning on" Miyuki replied

"We'll be going through the plains?or the forest?"" Konata asked

"The plains will definetely be easier on the feet so I think we'll go through that way" Miyuki replied

"Alright, let's get going as soon as we're done eating" Kagami said

--------------------------

"Konata..." Kagami said as she walked faster to catch up with her

"May I help you?"

"Ya, can you walk slower? Tsukasa isn't in shape so she tires out easily"

"Oh really?" Konata asked

"Yes really"

There were almost sparks flying off of each of them.

"They don't seem to get along very well" Tsukasa remarked

"Their both still suspicious of each other and don't like each other" Miyuki observed

"Fine, I'll slow down for Tsukasa" she said while stressing Tsukasas name.

"Brat..." Kagami said under her breathe as she slowed down to let Tsukasa catch up to her.

---------------------------------

"This place seems nice to take a rest." Miyuki said as she put her bow down.

"We've been walking for a few hours now right?" Tsukasa asked

"Has it been that long?" Konata asked

Kagami simply took her swords off and laid them down in the grass

"I'll go get some water" Tsukasa offered

"Thanks" Miyuki said as Tsukasa walked off to look for water with everyones canteens

"So where are we going to try to go, like the final destination?" Kagami asked

"Well I was thinking about it while we were walking but how about Flatine?" Miyuki replied

"You mean the 'capital' of the rebels?"

"Yes, towards the southwest of Laciena. I though that if anything, the rebels would have spies and such which would let them be more informed then others"

"Smart..."

"But how will we get there? All routes are blocked by the Vlacinian bog and the Slageti mountain pass, except for that narrow area which is heavily guarded" Konata suddenly asked

"Who said we had to go by land?"

"What? You mean were going to take a boat there?"

"Isn't that the only way?" Miyuki asked

"Probably..." Konata replied

"Anyways, I'll go get some food" Miyuki said as she got up with her bow

-------------

"Can we make it to Slagon tonight?" Konata asked as she looked at the sky "We only have another 3 or 4 hours of light but were only half way there"

"We may have to camp out" Miyuki replied as she too looked at the sun

"Then we should probably find a forest so there's things to build a shelter with" Tsukasa said

"Should be a forest several miles to the east, let's head over there now so we don't have to worry about finding it when it gets too dark" Miyuki said as she took a look at her map

"Sounds good" Konata and Kagami said at the same time. The two looked at each other with narrowed eyes.

"Konata, would you mind going up ahead and scouting out the area?" Miyuki suddenly interupted

"Ya... Sure..." Konata said as she ran up ahead

"Onee-chan?" Tsukasa asked when she saw Kagami still looking at the running Konata

"Oh, forget it" Kagami mumbled as she took her eyes off of Konata

-----------

"Damn Kagami" Konata muttered as she ran ahead to "Scout" the area ahead.

Konata was about a mile ahead of the group now and was in the forests.

"She didn't even tell me what to scout for" Konata mumbled as she sat down on a rock.

"Nothing to do..." Konata mumbled as she looked up at the sky "Another hour or two left before sundown..."

-------------

"How are we going to find Konata?" Tsukasa asked

"I whistle, she replies, repeat" Miyuki replied as she whistled loudly

The 3 girls had just entered the forest and were now walking along a path.

"Hmm I guess she's a bit further out" Miyuki remarked when a replying whistle did not come.

"You sure she didn't just trip and knock herself out?" Kagami asked

"She's one of the nimblest people I've ever met, she won't trip that badly" Miyuki replied

"I hope she's OK" Tsukasa said

The girls continued walking for another 15 minutes before Miyuki whistled loudly again. This time a replying whistle came a bit west of where the girls were standing.

"Come on let's go" Miyuki said as she turned to where the whistling had come from.

Miyuki repeated the whistles several times until pinpointing Konatas location. As the girls walked towards it, they saw a figure with blue hair sitting on a rock.

"Took you long enough" Konata said as she stood up

"Anyways let's camp out around here tonight" Miyuki said

"I found a stream a bit further west of here but I thought it would be easier for you guys to find me here so I came back here." Konata said as she pointed west

"Thanks" Tsukasa and Miyuki replied

"Oh mind if I just called you kona-chan?" Tsukasa asked, "It's easier"

"Ya sure" Konata replied

--------------

"A stream?" Kagami asked as all 4 girls stood in front of the "Stream"

"Well... Maybe a bit bigger" Konata replied while scratching her head

"This is a decent sized river" Miyuki said as she looked at the "Stream"

The so called stream was over 20 feet in width and god knew how deep it was at the center.

"Hey the waters clear though" Tsukasa observed

"Anyways we'll camp out here tonight, make the shelter at least 100 feet away from the river, I don't want any accidents in the middle of the night" Miyuki stated "Konata and Kagami, you guys have the sharp stuff, could you build the shelter?"

"Ya sure..." Konata replied

"Fine..." Kagami mumbled

"Still don't seem to get along..." Tsukasa whispered to Miyuki

Kagami took out her two-hander to cut at the small saplings

"I'll get the branches and leaves..." Konata said as she went looking for material

--------------

"What kind of shelter are we building anyways?" Konata asked Kagami in hopes of starting a conversation

"Well we have to fit four people in so a tent like structure would probably work best" Kagami replied

"Then we'll need a lot more branches for the crossbeams and large leaves for the outer layer... Oak leaves should be good if we put ferns on top of it" Konata remarked as she went out to look for more

"I think making them work together is making them less hostile to each other..." Miyuki remarked

"Maybe..." Tsukasa replied

----------------

"Well?" Konata asked Miyuki

"Well definetely fits all of us..." Miyuki observed

The "Tent" Konata and Kagami had made was almost 6' x 8'. It looked almost like a tent house that one would see at fairs.

"Well the suns already setting so let's eat" Miyuki suggested

"What would we eat?" Kagami asked

"Oh I went hunting for a bit while you two were vigorously making that tent" Miyuki laughed as she held up several thrushes

"Hey where's Tsukasa?" Konata asked

"She went to gather firewood, she should be back within a few minutes" Miyuki informed

"I'll take the feathers off" Konata offered

------------

"You know, Tsukasa's sense of taste is really good" Miyuki

remarked as she ate the last bits of her meal.

"She's the one who cooks between us so she's alot better then me" Kagami replied

"Oh are you the type to make pots explode in a kitchen?" Konata asked

"Why don't you shut up?" Kagami growled

"Well I see SOMEONE can't take jokes" Konata replied with a glare

"Stupid brat..." Kagami muttered

"I heard that" Konata growled

"Well I'm only saying the truth" Kagami retorted

"Can you two stop arguing?" Miyuki asked, "That was Konatas fault for instigating but you shouldn't have risen up to it Kagami"

"Whatever I'm going to sleep" Kagami said as she went to the tent and laid down on the very left

"Konata, you shouldn't make stupid jokes with her, she still doesn't like or trust you" Miyuki said

"Not my fault she can't even take a joke..." Konata mumbled.

"I think I'll go sleep too" Tsukasa said with a yawn "It's getting late anyways and were going to have to walk more tomorrow"

"good night" Konata and Miyuki said at the same time

"And about Flatine..." Konata said

------------------

"Yawn, wow it must be really late now" Miyuki remarked, "I guess I'll retire for the night too"

"Ok, I'll be up for a little longer" Konata replied

"Make sure you can wake up tomorrow" Miyuki said as she went Into the tent

"Sigh, I'll stay up for a bit longer..."

Konata sat on a rock by the tent, admiring the beauty of the night sky. She sat there for quite a few minutes when she heard rustling sounds over on the other side of the tent.

"Ya they're the girls we want..." said a voice

"All four should be asleep so this'll be a piece of cake" laughed another voice

Konata froze to make sure she didn't make even the smallest of noises. Her hands gripped her shortsword as she heard more voices. She could make out... 5 voices in all but there could have been more. She heard the sounds of footsteps and took this chance to move to the edge of the tent with her sword drawn. As she heard the steps get closer, he heard a suprised shout

"Who's that behind the tent?!" exclaimed a voice

"How did they see me?" Konata mumbled but stepped out I'm front of them with her sword drawn.

"Heh, it's the puny one" said one of the men.

Konata counted a total of 8 men. They were obviously Lacinian soldiers, destinctively different from the Placinian soldiers as these men wore steel armor.

"Puny?!" Konata spat

But the men only charged Konata. Knowing she couldn't fight all of them at once, she rolled out of the way and tripped a man while trying to slice another mans stomach with her right hand but her sword harmlessly clanged off the armor.

"Ha! You think that little sword will do anything?"

"Crap..."

-----------------

"Shut up..." Kagami mumbled as she heard loud noises outside.

There were more shouts and metallic clangs.

"What is Konata doing?" Kagami wondered as she woke up from her sleep.

"Ha! You think that little sword will do anything?" said a voice Kagami didn't recognize

it took Kagami to comprehend what was going on right now.

"Oh crap..." Kagami muttered as she grabbed her swords and ran outside.

There were 8 men in a semi-circle around Konata, all facing away from Kagami. Konata then saw Kagami and made a pleading face.

"DIE!!!" Kagami suddenly yelled as she lifted and swung her two-hander onto the closest mans head. The sword went right through the steel helmet the man wore.

"What the hell?!" 3 men exclaimed at the same time.

Konata took this momentary confusion to get her dagger and run across to Kagami while stabbing 2 men in the chest. Both men crumpled with gurgles

"Nice save" Konata remarked as she and Kagami stood facing the 5 remaining men.

"Tough eh?" a man asked, apparently the leader of the squad

"Still want to take us?" Kagami sneered

"Why not?" the man replied as the men fanned out.

A man to Kagami's left rushed in with his sword raised, Kagami moved out of the way and tried to impale him with her sword but the man dodged her attack too. Konata ran in at that point and tried to stab that man with her dagger but missed and rolled out. Distracted by this, Kagami did not notice the man coming up from behind her as he swung his sword at her head. Kagami, noticing just in time, ducked and swung at the mans legs, chopping them cleanly off.

"OH MY GOD!!!" the man screamed on and on, blood gushing from the stumps that used to be his feet (tell me if you think I should remove this part)

"Konata, shut him up" Kagami yelled as she blocked a swing from her right

Konata ended the screaming mans misery and used her shortsword to stab the man to Kagami's right in his neck, which was the only apparent, unprotected area.

"Damn it their as bunch of girls!" the leader of the squad roared, "You letting a bunch of sissys kick our asses?!"

"Sissys huh?" Konata remarked

The remaining two men were... Gone? Konata thought they had fled and focused on the leader who was enraged.

"Stupid girl" the man said as the two men who had seemingly disapeared, apeared behind Konata and hit her head, knocking her to the ground.

"Konata, no!" Kagami exclaimed as she threw her shortsword at one of the men, the sword going through his chest.

"Wahahaha! You still think you can kill me and my soldier by yourself?" the leader exclaimed as he swung his sword, knocking Kagami's two-hander out of her hand.

Kagami pulled her longsword out and stood her ground.

"You gonna try to kill me? I'll take you down with me if you do..." Kagami snarled

Kagami suddenly pulled a dagger out and threw it at the soldier still behind her, the dagger going through the mans neck.

"Was it 2 on 1? I do believe its 1 on 1 now..." Kagami growled again

"I see." the last man said as he came in and swung his sword from below, Kagami smoothly blocked the swing and reached for her shortsword... Which wasn't there. Seeing this, the man pulled back and knocked Kagami's longsword out of her hand too.

"You still think you can win without a weapon?" the man snarled

The man began to close in on Kagami

---------------

"Aw crap that hurt..." Konata mumbled as she sat up.

She then remembered where she was and saw the leader of the squad closing in on Kagami with his back turned to Konata.

Kagami picked up asword on the ground but the man quickly came in and hit the sword away while knocking Kagami to the ground.

"Now... Any words before you die a pitiful death?"

Konata quickly took her poisoned dagger out and crept towards the man

"No? Then die!!" the man yelled as he brought up his sword

Konata knew it was now or never. She leapt forward and grabbed the mans neck, putting him into a chockhold and stabbed the man in the chest before he could shake Konata off.

"Ugh..." the man gurgled as he fell down onto his face.

"You need help?" Konata asked as she held out her hand to Kagami

"Tha- thank you" Kagami said with tears

"What happened?!" Miyuki exclaimed as she jumped out of the tent.

"You mean you just woke up?" Konata asked in disbelief

"Uhh yes..." she answered, then saw the bodies, "Oh my..."

"We had a slightly rough time" Konata remarked as Kagami sobbed

"What happened?" Miyuki repeated

"I guess I'll explain then" Konata sighed

----------------

"All this happened in the last 5-10 minutes?" Miyuki asked

"Well it went pretty fast..." Konata said

"Konata actually saved my life..." Kagami muttered, she had regained her composure as Konata had explained to Miyuki what had happened

"Wait, is Tsukasa still asleep?" Konata suddenly asked

"I think she is" Miyuki replied with a laugh, "For now, let's move these bodies away from camp, it's going to smell really bad if we leave them here"

"Ok" Kagami and Konata replied as they got started on the dirty work

-------------------

-*in an unknown location*-

"You think these girls are the destined Ones, My lord?" said a voice

"I believe so... The evidence is mounting..." replied another voice "let us wait until they arrive at Flatine, we can talk with them there directly in person"

"I hope it is them, we've been waiting for so long"

------------------

"KYA!!!!!!!"

"What was that?" Konata mumbled as she was woken up by the scream

"That sounded like Tsukasa" Kagami said as she too was woken by the scream

The two went outside to see what was wrong to see Tsukasa shying away from the blood on the ground.

"Oh ya we didn't clean the blood, more like we couldn't..." Konata laughed

"O- onee-chan!" Tsukasa yelled when she saw Kagami step out of the tent "There's so much blood on the ground!"

"Should we tell her?" Konata asked

"Might as well" Kagami replied as she began explaining the events that happened last night.

Tsukasa listened with wide, disbelieving eyes. After finishing, Tsukasa asked

"Are any of you hurt?"

"Well I got hit in the head and got dazed for a minute..." Konata said

"let me take a look" Tsukasa offered

"Oh my, you have a nice clean cut down the back of your head..." Tsukasa informed

"Oh is that what's been stinging me the whole time?"

Tsukasa got her medical bag and got started on disinfecting and bandaging Konatas head.

"Oh by the way, where did you put the bodies?" Tsukasa asked

"Oh we threw them into the river." Konata replied

----------------------

Author: you girls cool now?

Kagami: well she saved me, I don't see how I couldn't be glad and grateful

Konata: see? I'm more then just an annoying brat *grin*

Kagami: whatever... *smile*

Tsukasa: I knew something was different even before they told me what happned, I couldn't feel a single ounce of hostility from either of them when they came out this morning

Miyuki: I'm glad you two got along

Author: next stop, Sumor!


	5. Ride

Warriors Hearth chp5

Birds singing, bugs humming, winds blowing. These were the sounds of the forest. Unfortunately for the 4 girls, it also meant that there was much more walking to do.

"Aren't we at Sumor yet?" Konata asked while walking next to Kagami.

"Well we should be there sometime soon, we've been walking for several hours now..." Miyuki said.

"Did we pass it?" Tsukasa asked.

"It's not impossible, even though I would prefer it if we didn't." Miyuki laughed.

"Well Avalon is only 20 or 30 miles away from Sumor right?" Kagami asked, "Worst case scenario, we just walk into Avalon tonight."

"She has a point." Miyuki remarked.

The girls continued walking.

-------------

"I hear they're going to try to come to Flatine via boat from Avalon..." said a voice.

"According to inteligence, yes." replied another voice.

"See to it that a boat is provided and that they meet no resistence."

"Of course."

------------------

"Oh my god, it's been so long, we have to have passed Sumor! And all this walking in a forest thing is getting a bit annoying, you can only enjoy nature so much... " Konata grumbled.

"Well at least we don't have to walk tomorrow if we reach Avalon tonight." Kagami said as she patted Konatas back.

"They're definitely ok with each other now." Tsukasa remarked to Miyuki.

"Seems like it." Miyuki laughed.

"Is something wrong?" Kagami asked when she heard Miyuki laugh.

"No nothing." Miyuki replied.

"Oh ya and there was this time..." Kagami started saying to Konata.

-----------

"So close... They missed sumor by only a mile." laughed a voice.

"Isn't it preferable that they missed it? It only means they reach Avalon quicker." replied another voice.

"True, so true..."

"I also arranged so there will be no questions when they look for a boat to Baklot."

"good, good."

-----------

"I'm just about positive that we've missed Sumor." Miyuki said "We should have reached it 5 hours ago."

"Bad map?" Kagami asked.

"Most likely, I rarely misscalculate when it comes to geography and the like."

"Well if that's the case, how far away from Avalon should we be?" Konata asked.

"Well the angle from where we stopped to sumor and to Avalon are a bit different so we won't just walk into Avalon at the very least. But to answer you question I'm not sure if this map is off so I think the best course of action is to head towards the Bay of Veronia and follow it south until we reach Avalon." Miyuki explained.

"Alrighty, let's head to the Bay of Veronia!" Konata yelled "... Which direction is it exactly?"

"I would guess south but let's head southwest in case we went too far east." laughed Miyuki.

-------------------

"What's this I hear of an ambush a few miles northwest of Avalon?"' demanded a voice.

"Reliable intelligence sources within the Lacinian military believe an ambush is in place consisting of several dozen highly trained men. In a sense they plan on an overkill, no mess ups this time. Or so they think." informed another voice.

"Send in the Third Reserve Ground Force." commanded the first voice.

"But my lord, that's a whole battalions worth of men!" exclaimed the second voice

"If they were planning on an overkill, I'll show them the real definition of am overkill." laughed the first voice.

"Yes ma'am".

--------------

*several hours later*

"What the..." whispered Kagami.

"This place looks like a battlefield... " Tsukasa muttered.

The ground in front of the girls was littered with the corpses of Lacinian soldiers. About a hundred or so men were lying across the plain and it seemed like a one sided fight.

"By the freshness of the blood and bodies, I would say the fight happened only a hour or two ago..." Miyuki informed as she knelt down next to a dead Lacinian soldier.

"Most of the casualties are by arrows so they were most likely surprised and finished off by swordsman." Kagami remarked.

"We probably shouldn't hang around for long, we're only several miles from Avalon anyways unless I miss my guess." Miyuki said as she got up and started walking.

"Oh look at this nice gold necklace this guy has!" Konata exclaimed.

"Looting off the dead isn't a respectable thing." Kagami remarked

"Awe but it's so nice..." Konata mumbled but got up and followed the rest of the girls.

"What was up with the bodies though?" Kagami asked.

"Defintely not a riot of any sort... Maybe we can find out in town" Konata replied.

"But who would be able to kill all those heavily armed Lacinian soldiers? And it seemed like the other side didn't suffer any casualties either..." Tsukasa wondered out loud.

"Come on let's go."

--------------

"Excuse me, do you know if there was a fight of any kind a few miles northwest of here?"

"Have you heard that there was a battle northwest of here?"

The questions were all answered with questioning glances and "Sorry no clue"S

"This is strange..." Miyuki muttered after asking numerous people.

"Let's just head for Baklot for now and try to get to Flatine after that." Kagami suggested.

"good point" Miyuki replied, "But we'll have to ask around if anyone is willing to give us a ride."

"I'll go ask around the docks. Kagami want to come with me?" Konata said.

"Ya sure."

The two girls walked off towards the docks.

"Are they getting too close?" Tsukasa asked

"I don't think so...?" Miyuki replied

---------------

"Excuse me, we want to get a ride to Baklot, do you know who we should talk to?" Konata asked a ship captain

"Oh you should talk to Masahiro over there." replied the captain while pointing to a man on the other side of the docks.

"Thanks".

Konata and Kagami walked towards the man named Masahiro.

"Hi are you Masahiro?" Kagami asked.

"Indeed, and you two are?"

"Oh we're travelers, we're wondering if you could give us a ride to Baklot." Kagami said.

"Oh sure, my ship is leaving tomorrow morning for Baklot anyways". Masahiro replied.

"Thank you very much captain Masahiro, oh and we also have another two with us if you don't mind." Konata said.

"No problem, it's just a ride right?"

"Thank you, what time should we be here?" Kagami asked.

"We'll be leaving tomorrow just a bit after sun-up so be up early." Masahiro answered, "Just wait right here and I'll come get you."

"Thanks." Konata and Kagami said at the same time.

"Well that was easy..." Konata remarked as she and Kagami walked to the Inn.

"Sure was... almost makes you think that someones pulling some strings for us." Kagami replied.

"Over here onee-chan, kona-chan!" Tsukasa waved from a table as Kagami and Konata walked into the Inn.

Konata and Kagami walked over to Tsukasa and Miyuki who were sitting at a table drinking something. The inn was pretty bland. Smelling of cigar, beer, and sweat, the typical seaside Inn.

"Did you find a ride?" Miyuki asked.

"Ya, a ship captain named Masahiro agreed to give us a ride since he's going to Baklot tommorow." Konata replied.

"Oh that's good" Tsukasa said as she took another sip from her drink.

"What is that anyways?" Kagami asked.

"Oh this? Some new kind of Ale, it's got a good flavor to it." Tsukasa replied.

"You really shouldn't be drinking..."

"It's the only thing on the menu that seemed safe to drink." Tsukasa replied.

--------------------

"So we're going to head to Baklot tomorrow, probably reaching it in two days, going to Flatine after we hit land then what?" Konata asked Miyuki in their room.

"I honestly have no idea." Miyuki said with a slightly frustrated voice "It's frustrating when you can't figure out what to do next."

"So it's going to be sort of a play-it-by-ear situation?" Konata asked.

"At the moment, yes."

"Ok well let's get some sleep, we have to wake up early tommorow."

---------------

"Why were the bodies left out in the open?" demanded a voice.

"Sorry my lord, we didn't have time to dispose of all the bodies, scouts spotted the girls so we were forced to leave" replied a second voice.

"If I had appointed anyone other then you, they would have been replaced... But since it was you, my second in command, that was in charge of operations, I will forgive you."

"Thank you my lord."

"Come on we've known each other for years, you don't have to go around saying my lord, my lord, all day." said the first voice, her voice becoming much more friendlier

"Ok... Misao..."

"That's better Ayano!"

------------------

"Wake up Konata." Kagami said as she shook Konata awake.

"Huh? It's still midnight." yawned Konata

"We were going to go see the fireworks together, remember?" Kagami laughed.

"What? Where's Miyuki? Wasn't she in the bed next to mine?"

"Oh she went to the fireworks too." said Kagami.

"Oh ok..." Konata said as she got out of bed and followed Kagami outside. But when they went outside, Konata realized that it was only them that were outside.

"Are you sure there are fireworks?" asked Konata but Kagami just continued walking as she led Konata to a large tree.

"Wha-?" Konata started to say but Kagami just grabbed Konatas shoulders and looked at her in the eyes.

"Konata, I..."

"OW!" Konata suddenly yelled as felt a hand slap her face and sat up in her bed.

"Huh? What? Wait wasn't Kagami outside with me?"

"What are you talking about? I'm right here stupid, Miyuki and Tsukasa are already eating breakfast, how long do you plan on sleeping anyways?"

"Oh that must have been a dream..." Konata said while yawning, "Wierd dream too."

"Stop mumbling and come downstairs before the ship leaves without you." Kagami said as she left the room.

Konata quickly got out of bed and walked downstairs to find Kagami, Miyuki, and Tsukasa sitting at a table, eating already. Konata quickly got a plate, loaded it with food and started devouring the food.

"Don't choke there." Kagami joked.

"Ugh, I, I'm cho- choking!" Konata gasped while feigning choking.

"Stop being an idiot." Kagami laughed.

"We should hurry... The sun will be up in a little bit and the ship leaves a bit after sun-up right?" Tsukasa suddenly said.

"Konata, finish your food up, Tsukasa, Kagami and I will head over to the docks." Miyuki said.

"Wait, give me a minute." Konata yelled as she shoved the rest of the food into her mouth and got up.

"Ofey we fen fo nou!" Konata yelled as she left the Inn.

"What did she say?" Kagami asked.

"I think she said 'okay we can go now'..." Tsukasa replied.

The 4 girls quickly walked to the destined dock to find captain Masahiro standing by the docks.

"Did we make you wait?" asked Konata, who had managed to swallow all the food on the way here.

"No, you 4 are on time." the captain said as he waved the girls to his ship, "Come on, come aboard the Fearless."

"Thank you." Miyuki said as the 4 girls stepped onto the boat.

"Rig the sails boys, we're setting sail!" bellowed the captain.

-------------

Misao: so you finally mention our names?

Author: I was considering waiting until the end of chapter 6... oh and sorry about the short chapter (actually I have up till chapter 9 right now but I still have to correct all the grammar still and rephrase stuff and all that jazz)

Ayano: it's definitely better if our names can be mentioned in the dialogue, it's easier

Konata: oh what's up with the random dream?

Author: oh that? I had a dream similar to that last night except it was you and me...

Konata: eh?! *exclamation mark*


	6. Arrival

"Ugh I think I'm sea sick..." Konata moaned as she leaned over the guard rail of the 'Fearless', the ship the girls were on right now. It was now several hours into their journey to Baklot. The ship they were on wasn't particularly big, about 75 feet in length and 30 or so feet in width. The ships mast sported a big red cross on it with a blueish snake wrapped around the cross.

"Your'e not going to be having a fun ship ride are you?" Kagami laughed.

"You could at least try to comfort me." Konata mumbled.

"Here kona-chan, swallow these." Tsukasa said as she handed Konata several small leaves.

"What are these?"

"They'll get rid of your sea-sickness" Tsukasa replied.

"Oh good" Konata said as she put the leaves in her mouth and swallowed, "How long until it's effects start?"

"Less then half an hour."

"Thank god, I thought I would die on this ship ride." Konata sighed.

"Girls, you up for some lunch?" captain Masahiro bellowed from the Stern of the ship.

"In a bit, Konata here is a bit sea sick." Kagami yelled back.

"A sick one eh? Well take your time." Masahiro yelled back.

.

"I'm probably a pain, you three can eat" Konata said.

"It's alright, I'm not hungry anyways." Kagami said.

"Actually, I don't think any of us are hungry." Tsukasa laughed.

--------------

"So they've met up with our Masahiro have they?" Misao muttered.

"Yes I arranged for him I be the escorter since I thought he was the most reliable." Ayano replied.

"Well in either case as long the girls make it here safely then I don't really care who brings them here." Misao laughed.

---------------

"Wow zyish fwood wis awot wetter zyen I fot." Konata said with a mouth full of grilled fish.

"What?" Tsukasa asked.

"I said this food is alot better then thought." Konata said after swallowing.

"The cooks certainly deserve praise for this food." Miyuki said.

The mess hall on the ship was really a "Mess" hall. There were food stains and didn't seem like the place was thoroughly cleaned In a long time but these shortcomings were made up with the excellent food that the cooks served.

"How do you like our cooks food?" Masahiro said as he walked into the mess hall.

"Actually we were just talking about how we would have to compliment the cooks for the food only a minute ago." Miyuki said.

"Is that so? I'll relay the message." Masahiro offered.

"Thank you." all four girls said.

------------------------

"You know, sitting on a boat is really boring." Konata remarked as she and Miyuki stood by the guard rail, looking out at the setting sun.

"Well it's better then walking all day isn't it?" Miyuki replied.

"Well it would depend on how you looked at things I guess." Konata replied.

"Hey what are you two talking about?" Kagami asked as he walked towards Konata and Miyuki.

"Oh nothing, just discussing how boring a ship ride is." Konata replied.

"It's better then walking isn't it?" Kagami asked.

"Haha, that's exactly what Miyuki just said." Konata laughed.

"Really?" Kagami asked Miyuki.

"Well not word for word but the meaning was the same." Miyuki answered.

"Haha" Kagami laughed.

"Please excuse me for a minute, I need to go use the restroom." Miyuki said as she left the scene.

"So how's the ride been?" Kagami asked.

"Well that thing Tsukasa gave me really works wonders so I've been fine as far as sea sickness goes" Konata replied.

Kagami walked closer to Konata.

"You know, it's funny, the first time I saw you I was ready to kill you and now here I am, about a week later and I'm asking if you feel alright." Kagami chuckled.

"Well you defintely owe me, if it weren't for me, your head would be on some trophy rack somewhere." Konata laughed and looked up at the orange setting sun in front of them.

"It's beautiful." Kagami muttered as she too looked at the sun.

"What? Me?" Konata joked.

Kagami replied by softly thumping Konata on her head.

----------------

"They should reach Baklot tomorrow morning and be here in Flatine by tomorrow evening." Ayano reported.

"I see, I expected them to reach here in the evening in two days." Misao said.

"Yes but the wind is on their side so they seem to be moving much faster then expected." Ayano said.

"Well all the more to them." Misao laughed.

-------------

"Kagami we have to get out!" Konata yelled at the sleeping Kagami.

"Huh?" Kagami sleepily asked.

"We have to get out, come on let's go!" Konata said as she grabbed Kagami's hand started running.

"But where? We're on a boat." Kagami asked.

"Just follow me!" Konata said as she leapt off the boat.

"Wha-?!" Kagami yelled in disbelief.

"It's ok hurry up!" Konata said as she rose into the air and started flying.

"What the?" Kagami blurted as she saw in impossible scene unfold before her.

"Come on stop gaping, never seen a flying person before?" Konata asked.

"O- ok..." Kagami muttered as she went to the guard rail and started to climb.

"Whoa! What are you doing?" Masahiro suddenly yelled as he grabbed Kagami.

"But Konata said..." but Konata had vanished from the air, "Wait, what?"

"You're trying to jump off the damn boat for gods sake!" Masahiro yelled as Kagami snapped back to reality.

"Wait what am I doing here? Wasn't that a dream?" Kagami asked, bewildered.

"It certainly wasn't a dream that you were trying to jump off the boat!" Masahiro said as he led Kagami back to her room.

"What was it then?" Kagami asked.

"I don't know, just try to get some sleep" Masahiro said as he opened Kagami's room.

"O- ok..." Kagami weakly said as Masahiro closed the door.

-------------

"So is this true that you attempted to jump off the boat last night?" Konata asked Kagami at breakfast.

"I don't know..." Kagami mumbled while nibbling on her toast.

"Perhaps you were sleep walking?" Miyuki asked.

"Sleep walking off the boat? I don't think I'm that crazy..." Kagami muttered.

"Well we can do something when we hit land..." Tsukasa said.

As If on cue, Masahiro walked into the room and announced that they would be at Baklot in less then an hour.

------------

"My my, interference?" Misao darkly asked.

"It seems they've decided to interfere with this matter..." Ayano muttered.

"Well they should be safe once they hit land." Misao said.

"I certainly didn't think they would go this far but what they did to her was extreme..." Ayano said.

"Jumping off boats? I certainly must repay them a warm friendly visit some time soon..." Misao muttered.

-----------------

Kagami: what happened?

Author: it seems like a mysterious force may have acted upon you...

Kagami: stop sounding like some crazy prophet

Konata: but when you think of it, what else could cause Kagami to try to jump off the boat?

Kagami: everyone knows that magic and all those things that come out in fairy tales doesn't exist...

Author: oh really...

Konata & Kagami: *glance*


	7. New Thoughts

Warriors Hearth Chp7

"Thank you so much for the ride." Konata thanked Masahiro.

"Don't sweat it!"

"Are you sure you don't need any payments?" Miyuki asked.

"Hey all you girls cost me was some fish and a loaf of bread, not worth repaying." Masahiro laughed.

"Thank you so much." Tsukasa thanked.

"We'll remember this and repay you some day." Kagami said with a smile.

"Now get going you rascals." Masahiro laughed.

"Thanks." the girls said as they got going.

---------

"With luck they'll reach us before nightfall." Ayano reported.

"Good, very good, their traveling alot faster then we thought they would." Misao chuckled.

"Do you want me to set up an escort for them when they reach here?" Ayano asked.

"Yes do so, we've been staying in the dark for awhile now anyways..." Misao said.

"We're lucky we recruited her in only a few weeks before they got exiled, it's much easier to keep an eye on them, she can observe everything since she's part of the group." Ayano laughed.

-------------

"Tsukasa, hurry up we're almost at Flatine." Kagami yelled.

"Wait up." Tsukasa yelled.

"Look I think that's it!" Konata yelled as she saw a large structure pointing above the horizon.

"Well let's hurry up then." Miyuki said as she started running.

------------------

"Well, now were here, what do we do?" Konata asked as the girls stood at the gates of Flatine.

"Well..." Miyuki said but then several men came up to them.

Instinctively Konata and Kagami pulled out their swords while Miyuki loaded her bow with an arrow.

"Please please, we're not hostile, we're here to escort you to the leader." the men stated.

The men had no apparent weapons or armor, just a gold and black uniform.

"Ok but keep your hands where we can see them." Kagami cautiously said.

"This is too easy..." Konata muttered.

---------------

"Please go through this door, the leader awaits in there." the men said as they withdrew.

The girls were in some kind of underground palace, the ceiling being over 20 feet high with large impressive pillars supporting the ceiling. There were also many doors on either side of the long hallway.

"Well, let's go" Konata said as she opened the door to see two ladies sitting on a large overstuffed couch.

"Ahh I see you're finally here." said a brown haired girl. The girl was dressed in a large robe with a crooked crown on her head and had an impressive fang sticking out of her mouth.

"We've been waiting for you." said a orange haired girl, this girl was wearing a dark blue uniform, much like a military uniform.

"Been waiting for us...?" Kagami asked.

"Yes we've been waiting for a long time actually." the brown haired girl said.

"Really?" Konata asked.

"We've been keeping a close eye on you three for the last week, since you girls were exiled." said the orange haired girl.

"Three? But there's four of us." Miyuki said.

"Indeed but one of you four have been keeping us informed." laughed the brown haired girl.

"What?!" Konata exclaimed. Konata, Kagami, and Miyuki looked aroud at each other, noticing Tsukasa looking at the ground while fidgeting.

"Don't tell me Tsukasa..." Kagami said with a sigh.

"Sorry onee-chan..." Tsukasa mumbled.

"Don't worry she's not doing anything bad, just keeping us informed and were here to help you girls anyways." the orange haired girl said. "But all that stuff aside, we need to do the introductions!"

"I'm kusakabe Misao, most people call me "my lord" or "Lord kusakabe" but you girls can just call me Misao." the girl named Misao announced, "I'm the head of the rebels, the mycenian Alliance."

"Alliance?" Kagami asked.

"Well we do have allies in other kingdoms you know?" Misao said.

"Anyways I'm Ayano Minegishi, second in command and also the head intelligence officer." Ayano said.

"But wait, how did Tsukasa keep you informed? She was with us the whole time." Miyuki asked.

Misao clapped her hands 3 times and a man, a servant, came in with a cage.

"We do have messenger pigeons you know." Misao said as she opened the cage and a bird hopped out onto Misaos hand.

"Oh..." Konata, Kagami and Miyuki said at the same time.

"But how did Tsukasa get involved in all this anyways?" Kagami asked.

"Well that's a simple story, Tsukasa-chan here seemed to hate the Lacinian empire so he found one of our recruiters in Placina and voila!" Misao explained, "We only recruited her about a month before you girls were exiled."

"So getting back to the point why we came here in the first place, do you know why we were exiled in the first place?" Miyuki asked.

"Why don't you ask Tsukasa here?" Ayano said, "She's been informed just as well on the situation but we ordered her not to say anything until you girls reached us."

"Tsukasa?"

"uhh... Well... Um..." Tsukasa mumbled.

"It's not like we're angry at you, just tell us." Kagami encouraged.

"Well... There's this legends that when a corrupt man tries to take control of the world with evil intentions, four people will appear, the silent assasin, that's you kona-chan, the might of the heavens, that's you onee-chan, the hunterfrom afar, that's you yuki-chan, and the healing maiden, that's me, will appear. There is also another legend that continue off of this one but I don't think I should tell you that one yet." Tsukasa finally finished.

"That's something straight out of a fairytale..." Kagami said with exasperation.

"Well it's what they say and king Takeyama believed it enough to try to kill us." Tsukasa nervously said.

"Do what do we do now?" Konata asked.

"Well, first of all you're going to have to get some allies." Misao said "Fighting the whole of Laciena and its allies by yourselves isn't going to work."

"What are you trying to say?" Konata asked.

"Leave Laciena, get some good friends, come back, kick Takeyamas ass!" Misao yelled excitedly.

"I think you should calm down..." Ayano suggested.

"Yes yes, sorry about that Misao" said as she regained her composure.

"But all the borders of Laciena are sealed and guarded." Miyuki interrupted.

"Except they can't cover every passageway there is... Especially the underground ones" Misao said, "Ayano, give them the info."

"Of course, in the forests north of here, right at the center there is a large temple, the temples of the guardians to be exact. By the temple, there's a hidden entrance that leads to a passageway." Ayano said, "If you follow the passageway, it'll lead you to the other side into Rubinile."

"Oh and there are alot of things outside Laciena you've always thought as impossible." Misao informed.

"This is a lot of information in a short period of time..." Konata complained

"Don't worry you have a walking guidebook with you, right Tsukasa?" Misao laughed.

"uhmm... Yes..." Tsukasa mumbled.

"But are you talking about THE temple of guardians? Doesn't legend say that it was forever sealed?" Kagami asked.

"Oh trust me, we can get you in." Ayano said

"Well I'll leave you girls alone now, come back here tomorrow since I'm sure you need time to absorb the information we just shoved down your throats." Misao laughed.

"Oh we've readied sleeping quarters for you so no need to go back up above ground." Ayano informed, "I'll have servants escort you if you wish."

The four girls walked out with 2 men in a red and blue uniform who led them to their rooms.

"Tsukasa I had no idea..." Kagami said.

"I'm sorry if I disappointed you or anything but the way Takeyama treats his subjects is just wrong..." Tsukasa said.

"No you don't disappoint me, in fact just the opposite." Kagami said.

"So you're proud of me?" Tsukasa asked with disbelief.

"It's about time you stood up for yourself anyways." Kagami laughed.

"These 2 doors are your sleeping quarters." the men said and walked away after a bow.

"I could never have guessed that Tsukasa would have been a spy." Konata laughed.

"Well I don't know if I would call myself a spy but..."

"Whatever let's get settled and see what else is around." Miyuki said as she walked into one of the rooms.

"Ok be ready in 15 minutes." Kagami said as she went into her room too.

"I wonder what they have here..." Tsukasa thought out loud as she followed her sister.

"Hmm I hope they have cool daggers or swords!" Konata said excitedly as she followed Miyuki.

----------

Author: sorry if that was too much information at once but I needed to get that out because if I didn't, I most likely never would have. Even with everything that you learned in this chapter, I still have some more like the explanation of Kagami's sleep walking and the reason why Misao said that "There are thing you didn't know possible"...

Konata: a bit rushed though?

Author: ya slightly... I'm at school and I just finished two chapters... Before lunch!

Kagami: umm is that possible while listening in class?

Authors: Listen? Class? GUAHAHAHA! who listens to teachers? I just cram before tests and get 100's

Miyuki: that's not good...


	8. The Impossible is Possible

Warriors Hearth Chp8

"Wow even the food here is great!" Kagami exclaimed as she ate breakfast, "The egg tastes really good, this ham is made perfectly."

"Well I guess it makes sense in a way since more people oppose the king then support him." Miyuki said as she took a bite out of her ham.

"I wonder what she's gonna tell us today?" Konata asked.

Tsukasa had gone to Misao and Ayanos room before breakfast and still had not returned. The dining hall was another place straight out of a fairytale, the ceiling being high, one large, long table and candles all along the walls.

"Ladies, when you are done please follow me." said a man who walked into the dining hall, obviously another servant.

"Ok." Konata said as she shoved a slice of bacon into her mouth.

------------------

"So what's today about?" Kagami asked as she entered the throne room. Tsukasa walked back to Kagami as she saw her walk in.

"Several things, first starting with the sleepwalking." Misao said.

"We're all ears." Konata said.

"Ok first, do you believe in the arcane arts?"

"Of course not, those are only in fictious stories." Kagami replied at once.

"You'll be surprised..." Misao said as she clapped her hands.

A servant brought in a cart with all sorts of flammable materials like dead leaves, paper and books. Misao made a bored face as she waved her right hand and the things on the cart caught fire.

"What the…? How did you do that!?" Konata and Kagami blurted.

"I told you, you'll be surprised." Misao said as she made a ball of fire appear in her hands.

"Is this some elaborate joke? Because if it is, you can stop now. The fire was impressive enough." Kagami said.

"This is no joke, Ayano why don't you show them something?" Misao asked.

"Ok" Ayano said as she took out an empty glass and waved her hands too. The empty glass was suddenly full of water.

"This is getting freaky..." Kagami said.

"Interesting..." Miyuki muttered, "I've heard rumors that arcane mages lived down south but I never believed it..."

"Oh as far as we know there are only a handful of people in Laciena who can do this almost all of them are with us, the ones who aren't are with Placina." Misao said.

"Wait your telling me this is real?!" Kagami asked in disbelief.

"It's as real as you are." Misao laughed.

"But cool magics aside, what's the reason for Kagami's sleep walking?" Konata asked.

"Haven't you figured it out yet?" Ayano asked.

"Your telling me it's because of a spell?!" Kagami yelled.

"Unfortunately, yes" Misao said.

"This is absolutely insane..." Kagami muttered.

"However there is only one person who could possibly have done this, I'm sure you girls know the name." Misao said, "The great sage, Yamamoto."

"What? You mean the guy who comes out in the old folktales?" Konata asked.

"Isn't he a fictitious character?" Kagami asked.

"Oh no, he's real alright, I've seen him before. Unfortunately for us, he's with Takeyama's cause as you can guess from what he tried to do..."

"Wait but why aren't there more mages?" Miyuki asked.

"Oh that? Well about a century ago, Yamamoto decided that he didn't want any sort of..."

"Wait wait wait, did you just say Yamamoto was alive a century ago? And old enough to do whatever he did?" Konata asked.

"Oh he's like a milenia old... He's been around forever." Misao said casually.

"A MILENIA!?!?!?" Konata, Miyuki, and Kagami all shouted.

"Great sages live long." Ayano said.

"Whatever, go on"

"So about a century ago, he felt that no magical beings should occupy Lacinian territory so he put a barrier around the Lacinian border and for quite a few miles into the ocean" Misao said

"Then why can you do this magical stuff?" Kagami asked

"I was getting to that. However, since he lives up at Mt. Trinity to Placinas northeast, his barrier isn't as strong down here, but the barrier still remains, which explains why I can only we simple magics" Misao continued

"So that's why Kagami was trying to so called 'sleep walk' off the boat?" Miyuki asked

"Exactly, but since his barrier is up, his power is only a fraction of what it could be, which explains why Kagami snapped out of it so easily." Ayano said

"This is alot of information..." Konata mumbled

"Also, as far as the outside goes, there is no barrier outside Lacinian borders so you might want to be careful" Misao informed

"Tsukasa, you haven't said a word, are you alright?" Kagami asked

"Huh? Oh ya I'm fine, just day dreaming a little"

"If you say so..."

"I also thought that equipment and the like might be troublesome so I got this bag for you" Ayano said as she handed Konata a bag, about a foot by a foot big when flat.

"This is gonna hold all our stuff?" Konata asked.

"It's no ordinary bag, try putting your hand in it, it should work since were in my rooms and far away from Yamamoto."

Konata put her arm in, only to realize that she couldn't feel a bottom.

"What the?" Konata asked as she furiously moved her hand, trying to find the sides of the bag.

"It's no use, the bag can hold anything and everything." Misao said.

"What? A bottomless bag?" Kagami asked.

"Well it has a bottom, just pretty deep. Oh and it's weightless." Ayano said.

"Well... Thanks I guess." Konata said as he put the bag on her hip.

"Oh and one last thing before you go, take this." Misao said as she handed Konata a necklace with a purple gemstone pendent.

"What's this?" Konata asked.

"Just wear it and don't take it off when you go outside of Laciena" Misao said with a serious tone

"You seem a bit serious about this" Konata remarked

"This will come in handy quite a bit" she chuckled

-------------

"So are we leaving tomorrow morning?" Kagami asked

"Yes, I think resting up for tonight and leaving tomorrow morning is the best course of action." Miyuki said.

"Wait did she ever tell us where exactly the temple is?" Konata asked.

"Um..." Tsukasa said.

"Oh ya, Tsukasa's here with us." Konata laughed.

The four girls were gathered on Konatas bed at the moment. As it was still a bit before noon, the girls also planned to go out to the market.

"Well, now that that's settled, who's up for a shopping spree with all the money Misao gave us?" Konata asked.

"I won't complain." Miyuki chuckled.

-----------

Author: short short short short chapter (only about 1200 words compared to my usual 2500+ words), I could have made chapters 7 and 8 the same but then it would have been too long of a chapter. Anyways the girls will be traveling to unknown lands next!

Konata: I wonder if the flying candy men are real from the fairy tales...

Kagami: I don't think those exist... Inside Laciena or not...

Miyuki: this is certainly getting interesting

Tsukasa: I don't talk much do I?

Author: don't worry you'll be talking soon...


	9. New Lands

"This is the Temple of Guardians?" Konata asked.

"Apparently..." Miyuki replied.

The four girls had left Flatine a few hours ago after sun-up and now stood in front of the temple of guardians.

"It's not as impressive as I thought it would be..." Kagami said.

"Well they do exaggerate it in the stories." Tsukasa said.

The temple was just a small shrine that had a special crest of it's own. The shrine was painted red and had a walkway made of a hard flat rock and had pebbles on either side of the pathway.

"Ok but how are we getting in?" Konata asked.

"Follow me." Tsukasa said as she started walking.

Tsukasa led the girls to the back of the temple, moving a small boulder that moved with relative ease, revealing a small hole in the ground.

"Since when are you that strong?" Kagami asked her sister.

"Oh this isn't a real boulder, try to move it." Tsukasa laughed as he hopped into the hole.

"I wonder how easy it is?" Konata wondered out loud as she tried to move it, but to no avail, "What?"

"Oh ya you can't move it only I can, I forgot." Tsukasa laughed, "Come on follow me."

As Tsukasa jumped in, the girls heard a thud followed by an "Ow..."

"Are you ok down there?" Miyuki asked.

"Ya I just fell a bit wierd..." Tsukasa's voice floated up from below.

The rest of the girls hopped into the hole as some unknown force moved the boulder back to its original position.

"Wow it's pitch black in here!" Konata exclaimed.

"Give me a second..." Tsukasa said.

Suddenly there was a spark as something caught fire, suddenly illuminating the surroundings. The room the girls were in was a regular room with tables, seats and other things one would find in a typical office room.

"Wow I bet there's a whole buildings worth of rooms down here." Konata laughed.

"Come on follow me." Tsukasa said while holding a torch.

As Tsukasa walked along a long underground tunnel, she lit every few torches on the wall to illuminate the surroundings.

"So were heading to the Lacinian border right?" Miyuki asked.

"Yes, there's a whole network of these tunnels, this one being over 100 miles long." Tsukasa informed, "Of course we're not traveling along the whole tunnel but just to get over to the other side of the Lacinian border."

-----------------

"You know, walking in this tunnel for hours is starting to make me claustrophobic." Kagami laughed.

"Now you mention it, same here." Konata said.

The girls had been walking along the tunnel for over 6 hours now without trace of end in sight.

"Well we're almost there, maybe a bit less than an hour?" Tsukasa estimated.

"That's still a long time." Konata complained.

"Well we're almost there and that's all that should matter right?" Miyuki asked.

"I guess..." Konata said.

"I wonder what it's like on the other side?" Kagami wondered.

"Maybe the flying candy men?" Konata laughed.

"Oh stop being an idiot" Kagami laughed as she lightly hit Konata in the head.

-----------------

"So do you know where exactly we are?" Miyuki asked Tsukasa as the girls stopped at a room identical to the one they came in from.

"Yes, we should be several miles away from Dafiele." Tsukasa said.

"Ok, then let's head there for the night." Miyuki decided as she sat at one of the tables.

"Is there a map of our exact location right now?" Konata asked, "I have no idea where anything is outside Laciena."

"Sure." Tsukasa said as she handed Konata a map.

* http :// i42 . tinypic . com / 300fq5g . jpg * (map of Rubinile, just remove the spaces since FF wont let me put links -.-)

"Oh so we're here?" Konata said as she pointed to the city named Dafiele.

"Well there's only one Dafiele so I'm pretty sure that's the one." Kagami said.

"Come follow me" Tsukasa said as she led the girls to a hole in the ceiling with a ladder leading up to it. Although it was aparrent that the hold was there, it was covered by something from above.

Tsukasa walked up to the wall and tapped the wall in some sort of sequence. Suddenly the object covering the hole moved with a deep rumbling sound. Konata, Kagami, and Miyuki all stared as sunlight poured in through the new hole in the ceiling.

"We're not in Laciena anymore, remember?" Tsukasa said.

"Oh ya..." Kagami muttered.

Tsukasa started climbing the ladder while motioning for the other three to follow her.

"I hope it's not a bunch of purple trees and blue people..." Kagami sighed as she started climbing the ladder.

"Why not? That'll be cool!" Konata laughed as she followed Kagami.

"It should be the same as Laciena as far as skin color and tree color go" Miyuki said as she too climbed after Konata.

As Kagami came out of the hole, she looked around at her surroundings.

"This is it?" Konata asked as she came out of the hole.

Unfortunately for Konata, the place looked didn't look much different from Laciena.

"Well Rubinile is just like Laciena except it's much flatter and mostly plains unlike Laciena which is mostly forests." Tsukasa informed.

"Ok well let's head to Dafiele." Miyuki said as she got out of the hole.

"Ok." Tsukasa said as she easily pushed the rock that had been on the hole back to it's original spot.

"How do you do that anyways?" Konata asked.

"Oh you need to have this ring." Tsukasa said as she showed a yellowish green ring.

"I never noticed you had that." Kagami laughed.

-----------------

"So this is Dafiele?" Kagami asked Tsukasa.

"Yup."

Dafiele was a big city of over 5,000 people. It boasted a great cathedral as it was the Capitol before Sienthrop, the current capitol.

"I noticed there were alot of horsemen and barns on the way here." Miyuki remarked.

"Since the kingdom is so flat and full of plains, many people use horses for travel. Rubinile also has the best cavalry in the world." Tsukasa informed.

"Gee you know a lot." Kagami said.

"Well I had to learn all this when I joined the Mycenian Alliance back in Placina. I had to get the books from the networks since all books about foreign kingdoms are banned from Laciena."

"Well let's get a place to stay and we can discuss where and how we gained knowledge on foreign kingdoms." Miyuki said as she walked towards an Inn.

---------------

"Ok let's try to recap what we're supposed to do." Miyuki said, "Tsukasa?"

"Well from what Misao and Ayano are telling us, we're like diplomats in a sense as we're supposed to convince the other kingdoms to fight with the Mycenian Alliance." Tsukasa said.

"Wait who exactly consists of the alliance anyways?" Konata questioned.

"Oh well Misaos group of course, another small group in Safraki, west of Lacienia and if we succeed, the whole kingdom of Rubinile. This would be a major boost as it will be the first whole kingdom that joins us instead of rebel factions."

"I see, so we head to Sienthrop tomorrow and talk to the people there?" Kagami asked.

"Well that's the plan so far..."

"But how are we going to present ourselves? We can't just barge in and say 'oh ya we want to talk to the king' and hope we'll get away with it" Konata said.

"Well Rubinile knows of us and sympathizes but they've never gotten directly involved. What we need to do is convince them to directly help us. In other words if we say we're from the Alliance then they should let us in. At least that's what Misao and Ayano told me." Tsukasa informed.

"Things never really go the way we want though." Kagami remarked.

------------------

--early the next morning--

"Ok ready?" Kagami asked as the four girls got ready to leave the Dafiele gates.

"If we travel fast enough, we should be able to reach Sienthrop by nightfall as it's before sunrise right now." Miyuki said.

"Alright let's head out." Konata said as she started walking.

---------------

"Wow this place IS a bunch of flat plains" Konata remarked after several hours of walking on an endless plain.

"Over 80% of the kingdom are plains so it's no surprise" Tsukasa said as she looked out into the vast, seemingly endless sea of green.

"But it's better than walking through a forest all day while being beaten by branches every few feet" Kagami said as she kicked a dandelion.

"Oh what's that smoke ahead?" Kagami asked as she pointed to a thin trail of smoke that was visible over the horizon.

"I don't know, let's go see." Konata said as she started running toward the smoke.

--------------

"Oh it's a fair of some sort." Miyuki said as a bunch of tents came into view.

The tents were made of some brightly covered material and were large in numbers.

"I wonder what it's about." Konata said as she started running again.

"You would expect that sge would get a bit tired after so much walking" Kagami sighed as she ran after the blue haired girl.

"She seems to accept Konata's behavior quite readily." Miyuki remarked.

"I guess, but I'm sure there's food there so we can probably stop for lunch there too" Tsukasa said as she too ran after the girls.

As Konata neared the fair, she saw an old wooden sign that said

"Welcome to the 23rd annual horse show!"

"Wow a horse show? What do they do?" Konata asked as Kagami read the sign too.

"Well most likely showcase horses or competition" Kagami said as she smelled a delicious odor coming from the tents, "They probably also sell food too…"

"Well let's go." Miyuki said as she came up to the two.

The fair indeed did consist of horse races and also auctioned off horses too. There were many people gathered at the fair as it was one of the biggest time for trading horses.

"I'm sure we're not going to be buying horses so let's just grab a quick bite and go on." Miyuki said as she walked up to a little tent that sold chicken sandwiches.

"Alright we'll just get some drinks too." Konata said as he walked to another stall.

--------------

-an hour later-

"Alright, now we head to Sienthrop." Kagami said as she walked out of the fair.

"It should be about 10 to 15 miles away so we should be able to reach it by nightfall as planned." Miyuki said.

"Well that fair was boring, they didn't have any fun stuff." Konata pouted as she followed kagami.

"Ok let's go."

--------------

-a few hours later-

"Wow so there are forests!" Konata exclaimed as she saw a forest up ahead.

"Well Rubinile isn't ALL plains you know." Tsukasa said.

As the girls walked into the forest, however, Miyuki felt another presence along with them.

"Be on your guard…" she whispered to the other girls with sudden seriousness.

"What ar-?" Konata asked but suddenly cut of as she saw a movement in the tree up ahead, she suddenly pulled out her sword out of reflex. Seeing this, Kagami and Miyuki also drew their weapons.

"Heh, a bunch of girls, we should be able to kill them easily." a man said as he stood up with a bow. Suddenly the four girls were surrounded on all sides by dozens of men with bows and arrows.

"Oh crap..." Konata mumbled as she took a step back.

---------------

Author: this was basically two short chapters squeezed into one chapter so alot of things happens in one chapter.

Konata: why the cliff hanger ending?

Author: to make people read the next chapter of course!


	10. New Friends

"Oh crap..." Konata mumbled as she took a step back.

The four girls were surrounded on every side by at least 20 men, all with bows and arrows, along with a sword and they were all about 40 feet away so rushing the men with swords wouldn't work either. The men seemed to be bandits as they all wore a rag-tag set of clothes that were ripped and dirty.

"Heh you girls should know better than to come into our forest! Now you pay!" one man said as he raised his bow.

"Oh really? I think it's you who shouldn't be coming into this forest" said a feminine voice from behind the man

"What?! Who is that?!" the man roared as he turned around and shot his arrow

"You really should know where we are before you shoot." said the voice again as an arrow flew from the trees and hit the man in the chest. The man crumpled as the other men suddenly rushed the four girls with their swords.

"Kagami, you know what to do?" Konata said as she pulled out her short sword.

"Of course I do, you think I'm an idiot?" Kagami replied as she pulled out her two-hander from her back.

However, even before the men came within 20 feet of the girls a large flame of fire shot out of the ground, surrounding the girls with a large ring of fire. The men all ran into the flame as they didn't notice until too late, incinerating all of them.

"Whoa..." Kagami whispered

"You girls alright?" said a girl who stepped out from behind the trees

The girl was clad from head to toe in a white and grey knights suit and had a large shield that had a large red stripe going down the center with a gold crown in the center. She also had a intricately designed sword.

After this girl stepped out two more people, one being dressed in a large blue robe with a staff and had a deep set of purple eyes with a serious expression and had short blue hair. She also had the golden crown on her robe.

The other girl was wearing a tight fitting black outfit with a large bow on her back, larger then Miyuki's and had long blonde hair. This girl had the crown on her quiver, which was on her legs.

"A- y- uhh yes we're ok, thanks to you three..." Konata stuttered

"Well you shouldn't exactly be wandering around this forest you know." the girl clad in armor said

The girl in armor took off her helmet, revealing a hawk like expression and short green hair.

"I'll escort you four until we get out of the forest." the girl in armor offered, "Oh by the way I'm Minami, Iwasaki Minami."

"Well I guess I should make an introduction too." the girl with the bow giggled, "I'm Fukuya Sagahime"

"I'm Hikasa Monezashi." the girl in robes simply said.

"Come on Hika-chan, be more enthusiastic!" the girl named Fukuya said while nudging Hikasa.

"Ok fine, hello girls, my name is Hikasa Monezashi, nice to meet you." the girl said while rolling her eyes.

"Hehe that's better." Fukuya laughed.

"Anyways let's get going for now..." Minami cooly said as she turned around and started walking into the forest.

"She's never any fun." Fukuya pouted, "You girls will find out how boring she is."

"umm, ok." Konata said.

Fukuya and Hikasa ran up to catch up with Minami. As the four girls stood there, slightly confused at what had just happened in the last 10 minutes.

"You girls coming?" Fukuya shouted from ahead.

"Ya, we're coming." Kagami yelled back as she started following the girls.

"Well the fire certainly caught me off guard..." Miyuki muttered as she ran to catch up to the 3 new girls.

"Come on Kona-chan." Tsukasa said as he pulled Konatas hand to make her move.

---------------

"So you three were specifically hunting for those bandits?" Kagami asked as the seven girls walked along a path in the forest.

"Yes, those men had been terrorizing the area for some time now." Minami said.

"It's a good thing you came when you did though, if not for you three, we would most likely have met a bad fate..." Konata muttered

"Well we were following them for a bit but we weren't in a good position to wipe all of them out so we waited and followed." Hikasa said.

"Those bandits had it coming though!" Fukuya yelled as she waved her bow around.

"So we're headed to Sienthrop right?" Tsukasa asked.

"Yes, we'll take you there since I live in Sienthrop myself." Minami answered.

"Oh ok." Tsukasa said, "By the way, do you think we could talk to the king if we needed to?"

"Huh? Well if you need to, he's my uncle." Minami casually said.

"Wait... Does that mean you're THE Minami of Sienthrop?! The legendary cavalry captain?!" Tsukasa suddenly blurted

"Oh, well I personally prefer being on foot but being cavalry certainly gives me more mobility and gives me an advantage as far as offense goes." Minami calmly replied

"So then these two are the Mage and Archer of Sienthrop? Apparently the best in the kingdom?!"

"Ya, we met a while back." Fukuya laughed, "Good times, we were at a competition for all sorts of things like fighting, archery, fishing, woodmaking, and the like. Oh they didn't have magic since so little can actually use it for any offensive use."

"So you girls met at a competition?" Kagami asked

"Ya, I was doing archery, obviously. Minami was dueling and believe it or not, Hikasa is actually extremely talented with the arts." Fukuya said

"Well anyways, we need to talk to the king so would you be able to get us in contact with him?" Konata asked Minami.

"Of course, but for what?"

The four girls looked at each other, wondering if it was alright to tell her the reason. Konata looked at Miyuki, Kagami, and Tsukasa who all nodded back.

"We're from the Mycenian Alliance." Konata said.

The other three girls stopped in their tracks.

"Did you just say what I think you said?" Fukuya asked slowly.

"Indeed, we're from the Mycenian Alliance." Miyuki said.

"Well in that case, you four should be able to see him imediately." Minami said slowly, "But if you're lying, you will pay a great consequence."

"Don't worry, we're not kidding." Kagami said.

The seven girls walked on toward Sienthrop in silence.

--------------------------

"Wow Sienthrop is alot more impressive then I thought" Konata said in awe.

"Well what did you expect?" Minami asked

Sienthrop, the capitol of Rubinile, had a giant castle and also had a impressive moat surrounding the town with a bridge. The town flew the golden crown that was on Minami, Fukuya, and Hikasa on a large red banner.

"Is that the crest of Sienthrop?" Miyuki asked while pointing to the golden crowns.

"Yes, it became our official crest only a few months ago." Minami replied.

"Very impressive place to say the least." Konata muttered.

"Here I'll take you to the cathedrals and see if I can manage to get you a room in there." Minami offered.

"We would be greatful." Kagami thanked.

---------------

"So I managed to get you girls two rooms, the one over here and the room next to it." Minami said as he pointed to two rooms.

Fukuya and Hikasa had went to their own rooms and the four girls were now being shown to their rooms by Minami. The girls were now standing in the hallway of the cathedral which had high ceilings and large portraits of past kings on the walls, all the windows were draped with large red curtains.

"Thank you so much Minami, we really can't thank you enough." Tsukasa thanked.

"But like I said, if this is some joke to get into our cathedral, you will pay." Minami warned as she turned around and walked off.

"Well that worked out alot better than I expected, we didn't even have to work to get in." Tsukasa said

"Well it certainly is better than I expected..." Miyuki said

"Oh can we all gather in one of the rooms? I don't think we've discussed why we need to start convincing other kingdoms to help us." Tsukasa asked.

"Now you mention it, you're right." Konata laughed, "I got so worked up over this that I didn't even realize that we were never told why we were to do this."

As the girls walked into one of the rooms, Konata took out the necklace that Misao had given to her.

"I wonder what it's for?" Konata wondered.

"So the main reasons that we need to start getting help is because of two reasons." Tsukasa said as she sat on a oversized, soft, luxurious bed.

"And those reasons are?" Kagami asked as she walked to an overstuffed chair.

"First, Lacinia is doing the same thing we're doing, they're gathering up even more allies in the west. Second, spies in the Lacinian military and government reported that Takeyama's forces were starting to get more men and they've even started getting the dragoons out, and they only do that during a war or in preparation for one." Tsukasa said.

"Sounds like they're getting prepared for a invasion." Miyuki remarked said while leaning on the wall.

"Exactly, which is why we need to start mobilizing ourselves."

"All the more reasons to try and convince the king huh?" Konata said as she jumped up and down on the bed Tsukasa was sitting on.

"Well yes, but what's probably the worst thing is that we don't even know what he intends to do if he does manage to conquer the rest of the kingdoms." Tsukasa said, "And Konata, can you stop jumping?"

"Aww come on! It's fun!" Konata said as she continued hopping on the bed.

"Anyways we don't have to worry about what Takeyama will do if he conquers right?" Kagami asked

"Why's that?" Tsukasa asked.

"Since we won't let him." Kagami grinned.

"Well a good morale definitely helps." Miyuki remarked.

-------------------

"Uncle, four girls claiming to be from the Mycenian Alliance wish to see you." Minami said as she walked into King Sakimato's throne room. The throne room's walls were made from the most expensive of marbles and had large carvings of saints on the walls.

"Is that so?" Sakimoto asked.

"Yes, and I get this feeling that they're aren't lying either..." Minami said as she stood in front of her uncle.

"Well I guess I'll give them a chance to explain themselves." Sakimoto said.

"Oh, Fukuya, Hikasa, and I were able to hunt down most of those bandits that were wandering the forests to the south for awhile."

"That's good, less things to worry about."

""I'll be going to my room now." Minami said as she turned around and walked out of the room.

"Hey Minami!" Fukuya shouted as she came down the large expansive halls.

"Yes?"

"I asked one of the purple haired girls if they wanted to eat with us and they said ok, you wanna come?" Fukuya asked.

"Why not, I don't have anything scheduled tonight..." Minami said.

------------

"So you accepted?" Konata asked as Kagami explained how she had been asked by Fukuya while going to the bathroom a minute ago if they wanted to eat dinner with them.

"Well it might be rude to decline and I didn't see any reason why we should decline." Kagami said.

"So when and where are we going?" Miyuki asked.

"Apparently there's a really good resteraunt close to the castle. Fukuya also said she'll come get us."

"But if we're going to eat with them, shouldn't we at least make ourselves presentable?" Tsukasa asked

"Well maybe..." Konata said as she looked around at everyone.

Konata still had the black robes from two weeks ago with some blood on it from the fights. Kagami didn't have too many blood stains as about half her body was covered with light steel armor but her armor was dented in several places and was none too shiny. Miyuki still had the same green robes on from Placinia and had dirt and grass stains all over the pants. Finally Konatas eyes fell on Tsukasa.

"You know, you don't look too bad Tsukasa." Konata remarked, "No visible cuts, almost no stains, not too dirty."

"Well I mostly can't really do much since I'm only good with cooking and medical things..." Tsukasa laughed.

"Well anyways, how about a whole new makeover? I found a lot of gold on those bodies earlier." Konata suddenly suggested.

"I told you not to loot off the dead..." Kagami muttered.

"Sounds good, let's see what they've got in town." Miyuki said as she started towards the door.

"Wait we're gonna go now?" Kagami asked.

"Well we are going tonight so we should probably get some decent clothes now." Konata suggested, "Then again we can just go with all this crappy looking stuff and look like poor hagglers."

"Well I didn't mean it like that..." Tsukasa mumbled as she looked at her feet.

"Now let's go my comrades!" Konata yelled as she skipped out of the room.

"What is she doing going around saying 'comrades'?" Kagami sighed as she got up from the plush bed.

---------------

Konata: that's the end of the chapter?

Author: well I've been delaying this chapter for a bit now and plus, if I make much more things, one might complain that I'm making too many things happen in one chapter.

Kagami: can't you work a bit more on your writing skills? Like punctuation or descriptions?

Author: I'm working on it, descriptions are definitely an improvement over what I did during TLD or in earlier chapters.

Miyuki: well practice does make perfect right?

Author: AHA! That is wrong!

Tsukasa: what?

Author: practice makes PERMANENT. if you practice wrong, it's not going to be perfect ("(^_^)")


	11. Convincing

"Wow, this fillet mignon is like the food of the gods." Kagami exclaimed as she took a bite out of her fillet mignon with a side of mashed potatos with melted cheese on top.

The resteraunt was one of the finest and had an almost mesmerisingly delicious scent. Although there were only 7 of them girls, the waitress had given them a round table for over a dozen people, most likely because the waiter had recognized Minami. The tables were made from mahagony with a maple finish and also seemed expensive.

"Don't get fat..." Konata joked with a serious tone.

"Oh shut up, you're eating alot yourself." Kagami retorted as she pointed to the half roasted chicken.

"The two seem to get along..." Minami remarked as she took a bite out of her hamburger.

"Hard to believe they were going at each others throat only a few weeks ago." Miyuki said as she slowly sipped her wine.

"Hehe, Hikasa, Minami and I always got along." Fukuya giggled while looking at Konata and Kagami who were pretending to stab each other with forks.

"So what exactly makes you come here?" Hikasa asked while cutting her T-bone steak.

"Well you'll probably learn after we talk to the king tommorow morning so I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you right now." Miyuki said, "Tsukasa?"

As Tsukasa explained the situation to Minami, Hikasa, and Fukuya, their eyes grew wider and wider by the minute.

"I knew they were up to something but have they started you mobilize so much?" Minami asked.

"It even sounds like they'll be ready for an invasion in a year at the latest." Hikasa muttered.

"Well I'm sure the king will provide any kind of assistance he can." Fukuya cheerfully said.

"Well all this information was from several days ago so something new may have happened, I haven't gotten any new messenger pigeons either." Tsukasa informed.

"Either way, this information is relatively new to us so it's appreciated." Minami thanked.

"Haiya!" Konata suddenly yelled as she threw a broccoli from her salad at Kagami.

"Hya!" Kagami yelled as the broccoli covered in dressing hit her on the head.

"Oops." Konata said as she saw dressing splattered on Kagami's hair.

"Sigh, you're cleaning that off."

"My bad." Konata said as she got a napkin and got to work.

"Kagamins hair is soft." Konata gleefully laughed as she wiped the dressing.

"I've asked you not to call me that." Kagami sighed.

"But it's a cute name Kagamin." Konata continued to tease Kagami.

"Would you two stop fooling around?" Miyuki asked.

"Huh? Oh ya." Konata laughed as she finished cleaning Kagami's hair.

"Anyways, it's greatly appreciated that you're coming out here to inform us about this." Hikasa said.

"Well we're hoping that King Sakimoto will agree to help us out directly, rather than helping without getting directly involved." Kagami said as she pushed Konata away who was trying to yank at kagimi's hair.

"Oh ya, when are we going to be able to see King Sakimoto?" Kagami asked.

"Well tonight might be a it late as it's already past 9 so I would try tomorrow morning." Minami said.

"Again, thanks for helping us out you three." Miyuki thanked Minami, Hikasa, and Fukuya.

---------------

~next morning~

"Impressive throne room..." Kagami whispered to Konata as Konata, Tsukasa, Kagami, and Miyuki stood in the throne room, waiting for the king to come back from breakfast. The throne room had a high, expansive, dome shaped ceiling and along with saints on the white marble walls, it also had suits of the grey and white knight suits, similar to what Minami had been wearing.

"His highness will be returning in a minute." a man said as she entered from the back of the throne room.

"Ahh, he eats in his own room behind the throne..." Tsukasa remarked as Sakimoto came out from a door in the back. Sakimoto wore relatively plain clothes, very un-king like to be frank. Wearing what looked like pajamas, Sakimoto sat down on the throne.

"So you girls are supposedly from the Mycenian Alliance?" Sakimoto asked, "Oh and don't mind my clothes, I only dress formally when I have important business like council meetings or foreign affairs."

"Err, yes we're from the Mycenian Alliance." Konata said, not knowing if she should reply to his statement of clothes.

"Well then, mind telling me what you're here to tell me?" Sakimoto asked as he leaned forward in his chair, eyes narrowing, almost as if trying to see if the girls were frauds or not.

"Well we have reliable intelligence of the mobilization of the Lacinian military forces, including dragoons and even reports of berserkers." Miyuki informed.

"My my, berserkers is it?" Sakimoto muttered, "They sound serious."

"That's what we thought, which is why we're here right now, talking to you."

"give me more details..." Sakimoto suddenly asked, this time with a serious look, the look of a man who had his mind set on doing something.

As Tsukasa and Miyuki proceeded to inform Sakimoto of the precise details to the current intelligence on mobilization of Lacinian forces, it had become apparent that Sakimoto was very interested now.

"So will you join us and fight?" Tsukasa asked after she and Miyuki had finished explaining.

"Hmm..."

"Umm was that an answer?" Tsukasa asked.

"Well you definitely have a strategic advantage since the Mycenian Alliance is in Lacinia but aside from geographical advantage, we're going to have to fight them eventually so I guess we might as well when we have allies." Sakimoto announced.

"So that means you'll be involved directly with this?" Kagami asked.

"I'll send out the order to start preparing our troops for war as soon as I can get paper and a pen." Sakimoto said, "Oh I'm sure you're going to be travelling after this too right?"

"Yes we need to go north to some other kingdoms up further ahead." Konata informed.

"Well how do some nice sturdy horses sound to you?" Sakimoto asked.

"Oh but we don't have any money to pay for them." Tsukasa said.

"Take them for free, a thanks for the information since if they had suddenly invaded without warning, defences would have been weak." Sakimoto said with a smile, the first smile the girls had seen on his face so far.

"Well if that's the case, we will gladly accept the offer." Miyuki said.

Suddenly the doors to the throne room opened as Minami, Hikasa, and Fukuya walked into the room.

"We've been discussing this together but... we want to help with this in any way possible." Minami suddenly announced.

"What?" Kagami asked.

"I said we decided that we'll help with the cause since we feel useless just sitting around here." Minami said.

"After last night, where Tsukasa and Miyuki told us of the plans, we talked over it in our rooms and we really would feel useless and pointless if we just sit around while the others do something." Hikasa said.

"Plus if we stayed, you would only put us in charge of internal defense, which is really boring!" Fukuya laughed.

"This is very sudden girlsi..." Sakimoto said.

"I understand uncle, but we all feel this way." Minami said. Fukuya and Hikasa both nodded in unison.

"Well even if you did want to help... What could you do?" Sakimoto asked.

"I don't know but I'm sure there's something." Hikasa said.

"Well we do have several kingdoms we need to go to and all the kingdoms up north are small and there's alot of them too so I guess that we can go separate ways and both of us try to talk the other kingdoms in." Miyuki suggested.

"Then we'll do that!" Fukuya excitedly yelled.

"It's greatly appreciated." Kagami thanked, "I guess we should decide who goes where then."

"Alright, well there are about 6 kingdoms up there so we should get three each. After that, we should head back to Sienthrop, oh and do any of you three know how to handle messenger pigeons?" Tsukasa asked.

"Ya, all three of us do." Minami informed.

"Ok, we should keep track of each others progress that way." Tsukasa said.

"Seems simple enough."

"And you three should go with your horses, you wanna walk the whole way?" Sakimoto asked.

"Alright, we'll head out tomorrow then?" Hikasa asked.

"Sounds good, we'll discuss who goes where when we set out since they're all in the same direction, we can travel together for awhile." Konata said.

-------------

~next morning~

The four girls stood in front of the front gates of Sienthrop with wide eyes and open mouths. In front of the girls stood a large black stallion, a smaller but equally impressive white stallion, and two brown stallions of about the same size as the white one.

"Are you absolutely sure that this is ok?" Kagami asked Sakimoto, who had followed the girls out of the castle.

"Absolutely, we ARE the kingdom of horses so we can afford it." Sakimoto laughed

"Thank you so much." Miyuki thanked.

"Oh do you know their names?" Minami asked, who was back in her knight suit. Even her horse had some armor on and it made quite an impressive sight.

"No, would you mind telling us?" Kagami asked.

"The large black one is kokuba, the white one is haku, and the two brown ones are Sou and Sau, they're twins." Minami informed.

"We're so grateful, I don't know how to thank you." Tsukasa said.

"Just make sure you're successful and that you don't let Takeyama's forces get the edge." Sakimoto said, "Now get going."

"I want that white one!" Konata exclaimedasshe rushed up to it and got onwith the stirrups.

"I guessill take the black one since I probably havethe most armor on." Kagami said.

"If you want we have that bag Misao gave us, I have all our extra clothes and equipment in there for now." Konata offered.

"It's ok, but thanks for offering." Kagami thanked as she too got on her horse.

"I'll take which ever one Tsukasa doesn't get." Miyuki said.

"Then I guess I'll take sau." Tsukasa decided.

"Then sou is mine." Miyuki concluded.

"Alright, let's head out." Minami said as she kicked her horse lightly to start it up.

"Well I guess we wont need to kill ourselves walking anymore." Konata laughed as she followed Minami.

"Hey wait up!" Fukuya yelled as she jumped onto her horse and started following the other girls.

-----------

Author: meh, another boring chapter. But fear not my readers(which is 3 of you?) since things will get more interesting(action!) from here on out. Also wrote this chapter half asleep.

Minami: where are we goinng again?

Kagami: somewhere north, we'll discuss the details later. I dont think It would matter if we decide now or not since we have to head north anyways.

Author: hmm I need to make Konata talk more...

Konata: that's right! I'm supposed to be the talkative one!

Kagami: you talk TOO much...


	12. Split

The 7 girls were now close to the northern border, being only about 50 miles away. They had been traveling for two days and had camped out for the night in a slightly wooded area, now they were walking in one of the few forests in Rubinile, the pines and oaks of the forest prevented most of the sunlight from getting trough, creating an almost hypnotic scene where only several rays of light broke through.

"Stop right there!" a voice suddeny called out from behind several trees.

"What?" Konata lazely said as she kept riding Haku.

"I said stop!" the voice called out again as a shuriken flew out from the trees and missed Konata by inches.

"Whoa!" everyone exclaimed as they suddenly jumped off their horses, all of them shooing their horses away after doing so to prevent harm.

"I told you to stop!" the voice called out again, this time from a different location.

All the girls had drawn their weapons by now, Konata taking out her shortsword, Kagami with her 2-hander, Miyuki and Fukuya had their bows drawn, Minami had her shield and longsword drawn, and Hikasa simply stood her ground, along with Tsukasa who had edged closer to Hikasa.

"Who's there!" Kagami demanded.

"Gee I didn't think all of you were so heavily armed..." The voice said as another shuriken flew from the trees and landed on a tree that was next to Kagami.

"If you want to fight, then fight! Stop throwing stuff at us like this!" Fukuya shouted.

"So boring... Fine I'll come out." the voice said as a dragon suddenly stepped out from behind a large boulder.

"you could try to use better illusions then a dragon you know..." Hikasa said as she waves her hand. The dragon turned into some kind of gas and dispersed through the air.

"My my, so easily figures out." a girl said as she jumped down from a tree. The girl was dressed in full woods camoflouge and had an assortment of small weapons, a ninja in other words.

Konata stepped in front of the group while pointing her sword at the figure.

"Who the hell do you think you are? Throwing shurikens at us!" she demanded.

"Well I warned you." the girl clad in camo laughed, "Now give me your money."

"What?" Kagami, Fukuya, and Konata all exclaimed at the same time.

"Money please, you know, those gold circular things that you use to..."

"We know what the heck money is, why should we give it to you?" Kagami demanded.

"Because I said so?" the girl said, "Oh but never mind, thanks for the money!" the girl said as she pulled a small bag from behind her.

"Hey that's mine!" Fukuya yelled as she drew her bow and shot it. The arrow past straight through figure which turned into gas and dispersed just like the dragon.

"What the?" Hikasa suddenly exclaimed as she saw a figure running through the forest. She muttered something under her breath as a "kya!" was heard from the forests.

All the girls quickly ran toward the sound to find the same girl in camo entangled in vines and branches.

"Hikasa, was this you?" Miyuki asked.

"I saw her running off with out money..."

"Alright who are you and what do you think your doing with that bag there?" Fukuya asked as she snatched the bag from the girl's hand.

"Umm are you ok?" Tsukasa suddenly asked as she saw several it's on the girl, most likely from the thorns on the vines.

"Tsukasa, you're too nice you know? She just tried to run off with about half our money just now and you're worrying about minor cuts on her." Kagami sighed.

"Now answer my question." Fukuya demanded as she lightly slapped the girl several times.

"Why should I tell you?" the girl bitterly said.

"Because if you don't, we'll leave you here in the vines and let the vultures pick out your eyes..." Fukuya said in a very serious tone.

"Ok ok, fine my name is... Patricia... Patricia Martin..."

"Strange name..." Konata remarked.

"Shut up..." Patricia said.

"Now why are you running around stealing peoples money?" Miyuki asked.

"It's the only thing I'm good at, sneaking around and all... And I even almost got away from you girls... If this Mage hadn't seen me" Patricia moaned, "So much money too"

"Sigh, get up." Kagami said as she pulled out a dagger to cut off the vines. After she finished, she got Tsukasa to clean up the small cuts.

"And you're the one who was saying Tsukasa's too nice." Konata joked as Kagami leaned on a tree watching Tsukasa treat the girl.

"Oh shut up."

--------------------

"So your from up north, from Badrun and you came here to meet famiy, except you learned they had gone back to Badrun, decided you liked Rubinile better because most people down here were easy to steal from, and now you're here?" Fukuya asked.

"In a nutshell, yes." Patricia said while looking at the ground. The sun was already setting so thee girls had decided to camp out for the night and had set up camp, Konata had bought several small tents back in Sienthrop and had placed them in the mysterious bag that Misao had handed her so setting up camp had been easy.

"Now why would you try to steal from us? It's obvious if it were a fight, we would have overpowered you instantly and you saw Hikasa, our Mage, with us." Konata asked.

"I wanted a challenge for once" Patricia said while making a face.

"Except that challenge got you in this state..." Kagami remarked.

"So when are you going to let me go?" Patricia suddenly asked.

"If you want, leave right now, we could care less but if you steal, you WILL regret it." Fukuya said.

"Alrighty, thanks for the hospitality!" she said as she ran into the woods and disapeared from sight.

"I want someone watching our money and equipment for the night..." Minami finally said.

"Good idea... No clue whether she's going to return or not." Miyuki agreed.

---------------------

"Well I guess we'll part ways here for now, Minami, Fukuya, and Hikasa can go to Badrun. Konata, Miyuki, Tsukasa and I will go to Zlad." Kagami said as the 7 girls got ready to seperate at a small river. They were currently at the banks of the river which had clear water running throught it.

"Tsukasa, you have the messenger pigeons right?" Minami asked.

Tsukasa simply nodded.

"Well, make sure to keep each other informed of our progress." Minami advised, "We'll get going for now."

"Alright, be careful." Konata and Kagami said as Fukuya, Hikasa, and Minami rode off towards the northwest.

"We should probably get going too, it'll be sundown before we know it..." Miyuki advised.

"Good point, there should have been a small town nearby if I remember the map correctly." Kagami said.

The four girls then started to ride off toward the Northeast.

----------------

"Any word on them?" Misao asked as she ate grapes from a golden goblet.

"We got a message this mornig, it reported that they got Rubinile in and that they got a few other people to join them in trying to help them get the other kingdoms." Ayano reported.

"Well why didn't you tell me the instant the letter came?" Missi demanded as she shifted her gaze from the grapes over to Ayano.

"I thought I would tell you at dinner." Ayano calmly replied.

Misao simply stared at Ayano for a few seconds, then suddenly burst into laughter.

"Is there something wrong?" Ayano asked in a genuinely worried voice.

"Just that I would normally get angry at a response like that but when I looked at you I just couldn't get angry!" Misao managed to say through tears.

"Anyways they said they would be crossing the Rubinilian border today or tomorrow so we should get more information soon..." Ayano reported.

-----------------------

"Minami, you really should try talking for once..." Fukuya complained, "And the same applies to you Hikasa! Am I the only one with the least bit of life in them?" Fukuya complained after the three had been riding in silence for half an hour.

"It's less awkward this way." Minami calmly replied.

"It's easier to concentrate." Hikasa said right after Minami.

"Sheesh, so serious and all!" Fukuya continued to pout.

"It sure is a nice night though." Minami suddenly said as she looked at the sky's, which were now a pinkish purple mixture as re sun was setting right now.

"Now you mention it, it IS nice out." Hikasa laughed

"See you two just said more words than you've said in the last half hour!" Fukuya yelled triumphently.

"Anyways since the suns settig, weshould probably find somewhere to rest up for tonight." Minami said, "I don't remember any towns nearby so we'll probably have to camp out again. We should look for a slightly wooded area if possible."

"Right there." Hikasa calmly said as she pointed to an area to their west where a few trees were visible over the horizon.

"Gee your'e fast..." Fukuya complimented.

-------------------------

"I wonder what Minami and the girls are doing right now." Konata wondered out loud as she rolled around on the bed in the Inn they had rented for the night.

"Probably setting up shelter, there weren't any towns over that way." Miyuki yawned as she sat down on a chair.

"I feel a bit guilty now, we getting a nice room and the others having to camp out..." Kagami said as she lied down on one of the beds.

"Well I'm sure there will be times with them being in a room and us being in the woods so it'll even out." Tsukasa predicted.

"Well, we'll head out early tomorrow as since I want to pass the borders before noon." Miyuki said asshe went to a bed and started to sleep.

"looks like she was tired... "

----------

Author: as usual I'm currently in my half asleep state so my writing may not make any sense...

Heck, I think i'm sleep writing this now...

Kagami: how about sleeping?

Author: but sleeping seems like such a waste!


	13. Tactics

Minami slowly opened her eyes as bright sunlight filtered through the trees up above... and Fukuya staring at her from above.

"What are you doing Fukuya?" Minami asked as she sat up and stretched.

"Well I was about to wake you up and you woke up." Fukuya said in a slightly embarrased tone.

"Where's Hikasa?" Minami asked as she put her armor on.

"She said she was going to a creek she saw yesterday to take a quick dip." Fukuya lazily said as she laid down on the ground.

"Don't tell me you're going to sleep again."

"No worries, just resting my eyes."

"except those things are pretty much the same thing." Hikasa said as she walked back into the camp.

"Have a nice bubble bath?" Fukuya joked.

"Oh shut up."

"So we go northwest right?" Fukuya asked as she walked over to the horses they had been ridden for several days, "poor boys, I bet their hooves are sore."

"Wanna walk the whole way then?" Minami asked as she put her shield on her back and got up on her horse.

"We're leaving already?" Fukuya moaned and turned to Hikasa but she too was already on her horse and the two of them started to leave, "Why am I always being left behind?!"

----------

"c... Coh... C...hee..." Konata croaked as the four girls sat at the main room in the inn.

"What?" Kagami asked, "Are you ok?"

"I think she's saying coffee onee-chan." Tsukasa said.

"Why are you croaking it out though?" Kagami asked Konata who had faceplanted herself onto the table.

"Huh? Oh I wanted it to sound dramatic and like I was dying." Konata laughed as she regained her usual energy.

The Inn they were in was pretty plain and boring, having only the neccesities but nothing that made it stick out. A few green plants at a corner or a small lamp on the walls but aside from that, it was just a cream colored room that smelled like food.

Befrr

"You shouldn't joke like that, you actually had me worried a bit."Ygt Miyuki

R

"Sorry mama, I'll be a good girl next time." Konata said while fluttering her eyelashes.

"Now youre just plain creeping us out." Kagami said while lighting lunching Konata in the head.

"Wait so do you still want the coffee?" Tsukasa asked as a waitress walked up to them.

"Sure why not, and also a bunch of pancakes." Konata replied.

--------------

-half an hour later-

Ftfftrrt

"Hoo..." Konata sighed as she patter her stomach, "That was a satisfying meal."

"You're paying for that." Kagami said

Suddenly a land started yelling, "Is Tsukasa Hiiragi here?" as he waved around a piece of paper.

"Uhh, yes right here." Tsukasa said as she stood up.

The man came running with the paper and thrust it into tsukasa's face.

"Urgent... Message..." the man said as he ran back out.

By this time, everyone was staring at the four girls, wondering what the commotion was.

"Who... Was that?" Kagami asked.

"I don't know but someone to do with the alliance... Look" Tsukasa said as she showed the other girls the paper, it was from Misao, "I think it's pretty urgent by the way the man was running."

Tsukasa started reading the letter out in a voice so the girls could hear but the other people couldn't.

"Tsukasa, Kagami, Konata, Miyuki. Unfortunately, we have very, indeed, VERY reliable intelligence that says that Lacinia will start a blitzkrieg against us within a week, the forces are already massed outside of the Slageti mountain pass, they moved there last night. Aside from enemy forces, the most reliable intelligence came from within us. Last night, as the military leaders both here and in Sienthrop were having dinner, someone apparently slipped poison into alot of the food and a majority of our leaders overall are either dead, or too weak to command. This is where I have a request, return to Sienthrop, I already talked directly to Sakimoto, who was spared because he eats in his own chambers, and we both agreed that we need assistance, we also concluded that you four would be most fit since the prophecy... Plus we're up to the point of desperation anyways. Also, Sakimoto sent a message to Minami and they're going to continue recruiting, we need as many people as we can since it's not Lacinia alone, the other kingdoms to the West are also assisting the Lacinian forces. Godspeed, oh and ask tsukasa to take you girls back, she knows a way."

"What... Does it mean at the end?" Konata asked.

He

"Oh... I know a way to get all of us back to Misaos place in a few minutes and from there, apparently to Sienthrop..." Tsukasa mumbled.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Miyuki asked.

"I can only do it once and then I won't be able to do it again until Misao gives me the eight in person..." Tsukasa answered.

"Well forget about why, this sounds serious so I think we should go right away..." Kagami suggested.

"Follow me then." Tsukasa said as she got up and walked back to their rooms.

"Sigh, how are we supposed to be all the way back to Flatine in a few minutes?" Kagami sighed as the rest of the girls followed tsukasa to their rooms. As the girls entered, they saw tsukasa getting several items from her medical bag, taking out some plants of some sort along with a book and a symbol of some sort that somewhat resebled a pentagram but had curls and twists all along the metal.

"What are those?" Konata asked as tsukasa laid them on a table.

"Umm... I'm just reading the instructions that Misao gave me..." she said as she held up a piece of paper, "She gave it to me hen we went to Flatine."

"Seriously, this looks like a ritual of some sort, you just have to recite some incantation." Kagami joked.

Tsukasa held up the book with a nervous smile.

"Don't tell me you're actually going to read incantations..." Kagami said with an exhasperated sigh.

"I'm only reading instructions..." Tsukasa mumbled, "Oh make sure you have evrything on you, as in make sure everything that you need is in contact with your body."

"What?" Konata asked.

"Just do it please? Now sit around the symbol on the ground and eat the herbs..." Tsukasa instructed as she put one of the leaves from the plant in her mouth while making a disgusted face, "Ugh, bitter..."

"Are you sure this is going to work? It seems like something that'll happen in a fairy tale..." Kagami asked, dubious as to whether this would work.

"Uhm it should... I just have to read this incantation...?" Tsukasa said as she started to read off the book.

"Dishpalug jusdanghad wz... Um wzlurguj..." and she continued reading the incantation.

"You sure this is going to wo-" Konata started to say as she suddenly felt herself being pulled forward as everything went black. She felt as if she were falling through the air and had a particularly annoying sensation as if her chest were being compressed.

Suddenly, bright lights appeared as she opened her eyes. She was back in Misao's throne room.

-----------------

"Fukuya, Hikasa, I got a letter this morning... I think you two should see it." Minami said as the girls got ready to leave again after they had stopped at a stream to let the horses drink.

"From your uncle?" Hikasa asked as she got back on her horse.

"Ya, apparently Laciena is going to try for a blitzkrieg, they moved most of their skirmishing forces within 20 miles of the border last night, they're probably going to start invading within this week. The letter also told us not to come back and continue trying to get more kingdoms to help us, Laciena has several kingdoms to the west helping them, they outnumber the Rubinilian forces 3 to 2 so they also have the advantage of numbers. As of now, Konata and her gang are going to head back to Sienthrop to assist with military operations because over half of our military leaders were assasinated last night." Minami informed.

"You seem to take the deaths of the military leaders calmly." Fukuya remarked.

"It's one of their risks as important people, they risk assasination." Minami shrugged, "plus I never really liked any of them, they made fun of me because I'm a girl."

"Anyways so those idiots are going to try and invade huh?" Hikasa said.

"Bad thing is, we can't really get intelligence on who's on the skirmishing forces... We believe it's only regular infantry since intelligence didn't hear anything of horses, our cavalry ought to be able to sweep the first wave up easily." Minami said, "We should hurry up and get to Badrun and get them to help us, Laciena and it's forces are too large for us to hold back alone." Minami suggested as she lightly kicked her horse and got it going.

-----------------

"Huh?" Konata exclaimed a she looked around and saw the other girls sitting in the same exact position they had been in a few seconds ago. They all had equally surprised looks on their faces.

"Good to have you back!" Misao yelled as she started clapping, "You know you only needed the symbol and incantation, the herbs were just to annoy you with the taste."

"I told her not to but..." Ayano said with a slight smile.

The throne room had changed slightly since they had last been in it, it now had many maps of the region with different colored pins on the maps. Aside from that, it also now had a large composite bow and Arrows on the throne.

"Is that yours Misao?" Kagami asked while pointing to the bow and arrows.

"Yes, I'm a pretty good archer, aside from my magics." Misao said while grinning and showing off her fangs.

"Getting straight to business, is it safe for your people to stay back here? You're mostly cut off from everyone else because of the mountains, bogs, and the ocean..." Miyuki said as she put her bow down.

"If the whole Lacinian force tried to get through the mountains, bogs, or the sea, we have enough defenses, that by the time they get break through, their forces will be a tenth of their original numbers. Why do you think they haven't bothered reconquering us?" Misao laughed.

"We would also have casualties of course but not enough to severly diminish our forces. In other words, we're safe here. Safer than in Sienthrop to be frank." Ayano said.

"Ok so you're safe here, now we need to get back to Sientgrop right?" Kagami asked as she sat down on a red overstuffed chair.

"Agh yes, that... You'll have to teleport again but I'll do it this time, I need to go to Sienthrop to discuss things with the king myself." Misao said, "Ayano, appoint a temporary leader while we're gone, you're coming with me."

"Of course." Ayano said as she left the room, supposedly to get another person.

"This time, we'll go with my magics so it ought to be much faster and efficient." Misao grinned as she got up from the large throne.

"Wait are you saying Tsukasa used magic before?" Konata asked.

"Oh you didn't know? Tsukasa-chan, shame on you! You should have told them." Midai laughed, "She's training in the magcs ight now, we might even have the next great sage!"

"I would rather not have my sister to be a millenia old hag, thank you very much." Kagami said while rolling her eyes, "But why didn't you tell us tsukasa?"

"Umm well I thought you would expect me to do something if trouble came but I don't know any offensive spells yet so..." Tsukasa mumbled.

"But you know defensive spells tsukasa-chan!" Misao grinned.

Just then, Ayano walked into the room, "I got our Masahiro to take over."

"Wait Masahiro the ship captain?" Miyuki asked as she remembered the man who had transported the girls from Slagon to Baklot.

"The very same, he's more than just a ship captain, he's very high up in our hierachy here at the Mycenian Alliance. In fact he's third in charge around here; which is why I'm appointing him commander while Ayano and I are gone." Misao informed.

"Well let's go then, there's no telling when Laciena is going to start invading." Konata said as she got up from the ground.

"Oh you can stay there, I'll teleport all of you from there." Misao said, "Ayano, ready?"

"Sure, whenever you are." Ayano said as she closed her eyes.

Now both Misao and Ayano had their eyes closed and were on either side of the four girls sitting down. Slowly but surely, they started to glow a faint blue. Suddenly all the girls started feeling very sleepy and the more they tried to keep their eyes open, the heavier their eyelids seemed to get. Finally all four girls fell asleep.

------------------

"Ow!" Konata suddenly yelled as she felt something hit her ribs.

"Get up sleepy, how long are you going to lie there sleeping?" Kagamis voice said.

Konata got up to see that they were inside a tent, not the castle. The tent seemed to be a collapsable tent and had drawers, maps, desks, and everything one might find in a military command post.

"Where are we?" Konata asked.

"Sigh, we're about 5 miles from the Lacinian border, we got teleported here instead of the castle." Kagami said as she came up to Konata and helped her up. While picking her up, Kagami noticed the purple pendant that Misao had given Konata.

"What is that?" Kagami asked asshe pointed to the pendant.

"Oh this? You never noticed? Misao gave it to me the first time we met her."

"Geez, never noticed." kgami said as he walked out the tent.

Konata quickly followed Kagami and when she went outside the tent, she saw an amazing sight. Because the tents were up on a high hill, they could see everything beneath them. Currently, there were thousands upon thousands of soldiers lined up in perfect rows. At the front was none other than Rubiniles famed cavalry.

"Wow..." Konata said in awe.

"Never seem this many soldiers?" a man asked as he came up to Konata, the man was about 6 feet and had a suit similar to that which Minami wore, except it was much, much shinier and had gold trimmings along the shoulders. He also carried a rapier with jewels encrusted onto the handle.

"You're Konata right? I'm General Okamoku, In told that I'm going to be working with you too, I already met the other three."

"Uhh, nice to meet you... But you see, none of us are good at military tactis or coordination..." Konata said.

"That's why you're going to learn." Okamoku smiled, "come on, the rest of the girls are in the tent over there."

As Konata entered the tent, she saw the rest of the girls gathered around a large map with another general in similar attire to Okamoku talking to them, but this general was slightly smaller than Okamoku, about 5'8" or 9"z

"So if we flank them around these hills after leading them through here, we can effectively it their forces in half and slowly finish off the group who would get cut off from the rest..." the general explained to the girls.

"Sasunaka, I got the Konata here." Okasaku announced as he walked in.

"My my, a sleepy girl?"Sasunaka laughed as he came over to Konata and thrust his had out, "General Sasunaka, currently leading cavalry divisions 1 through 14, the 20th, 27th, and 41st Bowman corps, and Infantry divisions 5 through 10. But theyre positioned up and down the whole border. Oh and apparently us two are the only remaining tacticians who are also generals."

Konata took the hand and shook it while shooting a questioning glance to the rest of the girls.

"Now let's get down to business, how much military terms do you know?" Saunaka asked.

"I don't know, I guess I'll ask if there's anything I don't know" Konata replied.

"Good enough." Sasunaka said as he walked back to the table, "Okamoku, get over here too."

As Konata and Okamoku walked up to the table, Konata saw a gigantic map of what looked like the Lacinian and Rubinilian border. On it, there were pins of many colors, purple, red, yellow, green, black, and black.

"What are these pins?" Konata asked.

"The purple pins represent the Lacinian infantry, red is their archers, and the black is their cavalry. The colors opposite of each other are our forces, red and green, black and white, yellow and purple." Miyuki explained.

"This girls a pure genius in tactics." Sasunaka grinned.

"Anyways right now, the main threat is the infantry, they outnumber both our cavalry and our infantry combined." Okamoku said.

Konata then noticed that the number of purple numbers were extremely large.

"The Lacinians have approximately a force of about 4000 Infantry, 1000 archers, and only about 500 cavalry. We have a force of around 2000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and about 500 archers. However, we also have the afvantage of our very own mages. As soon as Misao and Ayano get back... They went somewhere together..." Sasunaka informed.

"Alright, now to fill you in on the details, as of now, the Lacinians are only one or two miles from the border as of now, they're going to invade any hour, that's why we set up our archers... Here." Sasunaka said while pointing to the green pins which were behind a hill.

"They're most likely going to invade from right here since it's the closest to them and aside from that, if they breakthrough there, there aren't any more ambush spots past the beggining." Okamoku explained, "We also set up our cavalry here behind the trees so they can give them a nice surprise and probably drive the first wave back. Once they start coming full force, we'll use Misao and Ayanos powers to help us out."

"So hat do we do?" Konata asked.

"We're going to go to the front lines and supervise all of this." Kagami answered, "These guys are way better at planning but we can order people around so that's what we're going to do."

"When do we start heading down?" Konata continued to question.

"Now if we want." Tsukasa replied.

"Alright let's go then! they're going to invade any hour right?"

"Alright let's go down there." Miyuki said as she put her bow on and left the tent.

-----------------------

Author: loong chapter! And I feel a bit guilty for not giving Minami's group any attention but the action is happening by the border right now so... Ya...

Minami: all we're doing is riding around on a horse all day anyways.

Kagami: then again Author needs to set up the setting and the feel for the imminent fight up ahead.

Author: thanks Kagami-chan

Kagami: what did you just call me? *glare*

Author: nothing... Nothing...


	14. Kidnapping

"I wonder if the fight's already started down south..." Fukuya said as she rode her horse through a flat green plain. There were the occasional bushes but otherwise mostly flat green plains.

"like I would know." Hikasa said as she made a bored face.

"you're the one with the pigeons!" Fukuya said in disbelief.

"doesn't mean she gets news everyday you know." Minami said in Hikasa's defense.

"geez, ganged up on again..."

Suddenly a small cluster of tall grass in front of the three moved ever so slightly.

"What was that?" Hikasa said in hushed tones.

"I don't know, isn't there some magic you can use like x-ray vision?" Fukuya asked.

"Whatever moved definitely wasn't a rabbit to say the least, too large of a movement..." Minami said as she got off her horse and drew her sword and shield.

"Who's there?" Minami demanded as she cautiously edged towards the grass, taking small steps.

"Hmph, have it your way." Hikasa said as the grasses suddenly caught fire.

"Hyaaaaaaaa."

A girl who looked strangely familiar suddenly rushed out and ran off, only to trip and fall on her face.

"Hey aren't you from the forest?!" all three girls said at the same time.

In front of the girls laid the ninja like girl they had met earlier in the forests. She still had the woods camouflage and the various toys like shurikens, kunais, and other fun stuff.

"What are you doing here?!" Fukuya managed to ask.

"Well... I... Uhh... I was going to come out but I thought you would kill me out of surprise if I jumped out!" Patricia yelled, "I wasn't planning on stealing anything, I swear!"

"Why are you here in the first place?" Minami asked suspiciously.

"I decided I wanted to see some of my family again so I went to the border, which is only about a mile away, but got rejected so..." Patricia mumbled.

"Well Patricia, what do you expect us to do for you? You tried stealing from us once already and there's some hard feelings left..." Hikasa said coldly

"call me Patty... Anyways... You should help me out of humanness...?" Patty laughed uneasily.

-------------------

"Kagami, take the infantry. Miyuki, you take the archers. Tsukasa, you help Konata manage the cavalry ok?" Sasunaka said as the girls prepared to go down to the fronts.

Each girl had been given a loud whistle and a miniature map of the area they were about to go to. The girls were still inside the tent from before.

"We know they may not be your specialty so we also assigned Camp De Aides for you." Okamoku said, "They're already down by the front."

"Alright, we should head down then. By the way, do we know when they might invade?" Kagami asked.

"They're moving in as we speak in fact." Okamoku said matter-of-factly.

"WHAT?!" Konata and Kagami exclaimed at the same time.

"Why didn't tell you us earlier?" Miyuki asked with slight worry in her voice.

"Well they still have another few miles and the beginning is planned out so the men won't need any orders, it's later when we need to start improvising that we need you girls." Sasunaka said, "But you better hurry up."

--------------------

"Are you sure Minami?" Hikasa asked in disbelief as the three girls huddled away from party who was sitting on the ground by the horses humming.

"I say we just tie her to a tree and let her stay there, she won't bother anyone if we do that..." Fukuya whispered.

"maybe, but we'll probably need her set of skills later and having a larger group is better as far as defense goes." Minami calmly said.

"But she might be yellow in a real fight." Fukuya insisted.

"Trust me, just let her stay." Minami said as she walked over to Patty.

Fukuya and Hikasa simply stood there scratching their heads.

"That's her soft side showing..." Fukuya remarked as she shifted her bow and walked towards Patty and Minami who was talking to her.

"...Have to work with us." Minami was saying.

"Thank you so much!" Patty exclaimed as she jumped up and hugged Minami.

Hikasa came over and suddenly pulled Patty off of Minami. Staring at her with cold eyes.

"do anything stupid and I will encase you in spiky, thorny vines again but I'll light the vines on fire and make the thorns poisonous." Hikasa said coldly, "Do you understand that?"

"y... Yes..." Patty stuttered out.

Hikasa simply threw party onto the ground.

"she holds grudges for a long time, better not anger her too much." Fukuya chuckled.

"For now ride on my horse behind me since my horse is the biggest here." Minami said as she swung herself onto her horse, which snorted.

Patty nodded in thanks and swung onto the horse and grabbed onto Minami a bit nervously.

"Is this your first time riding horses?" Minami asked as the girls started towards the border.

"no but it's the first time I'm being carried so it feels a bit strange." Patty said as she tightened her grip on Minami.

The girls continued on towards the border house where the guards stayed.

--------------

Miyuki was now walking towards her assigned post alone. The rest of the girls had split up, Kagami going further north and Tsukasa and Konata going a bit northeast of where Miyuki was headed.

"Feels a bit weird walking alone..." Miyuki laughed as she held her bow at the ready. Even though she knew she was in friendly territory, her instincts were stronger and she always had her bow drawn.

As Miyuki continued on, she spotted another tent in the distance, guessing that it was the military command post, she went faster towards it.

----------------

"Tsukasa, just stick with me and we'll all be fine." Konata said while pumping her chest and waving her short sword.

Both girls had ridden their horses down since they were going to command the cavalry.

"I think I see our forces over there, they have the banner too." Tsukasa said as she pointed to a group that was faintly visible from the distance.

"Well let's hurry up then!" Konata exclaimed as she kicked her horse and sped ahead.

"Wait up!" Tsukasa exclaimed as she sped up to catch up with Konata

------------------

Kagami was currently in forest, where the Rubinilian infantry were placed in set up for an ambush and incase the Lacinians tried to flank the main force from the south or north.

"damn it, they could at least have given me a map of where I was going..." she mumbled as she walked ahead.

Suddenly a voice called out from the trees ahead of Kagami, "Would you be Hiiragi-sama that we've been waiting for?"

"Who is that?" Kagami asked as her hands instinctively went to the hilt of her sword.

Three men stepped out from the trees dressed in Rubinilian armor. "since it's probably hard to find us, we were sent to lead you to HQ." the man at the head said.

"Oh thank god, I thought I would never find you guys." Kagami said as she walked over to give a handshake but she suddenly felt hands grab her from behind.

"What?!" Kagami exclaimed as she tried to spin around but a cloth that smelled suspiciously sweet was put around her mouth as the world darkened and turned black.

------------

Miyuki was now sitting at the top of the hill with several dozen other soldiers in wait for the inevitable charge on the plains below. Other archers were positioned all over the hill and in trees down below.

"Takara-sama, we got word that the Lacinian have started their move in this direction, it is advised to prepare for combat any minute now." an advisor said as he ran up the hill.

"Thank you for the information." Miyuki thanked as she turned head and raised her voice, "prepare for war! Enemy forces are approaching and will be within sight within a few minutes, draw your bows and do not fire until I give the commands, remember to aim for the officers at the head of the charges if you can!"

Cries of "Roger", "let's get em!", and "death to Lacinia!" rose up.

---------------

As Konata was instructing Tsukasa what to do, a man suddenly burst into the tent they were in panting, "Ma'am! Hiiragi-sama still hasn't arrived by the infantry divisions, no one has seen her since she left the main camp either! Reports of skirmishers from Lacinia already infiltrating has also come, we believe something may have happened!" the man panted as he collapsed gasping for breath.

"What!? Kagami was attacked?" Konata exclaimed.

"We're not sure but that's what we're inferring, we've sent search parties but no signs of her at all ma'am!"

Tsukasa collapsed but managed to grab onto a chair, "Onee-chan..."

Konata paced the room as she tried to figure out what to do, "Has Miyuki been informed?"

"We... Sent another... Messenger, she should.... Get the message any minute.. Now..." the man gasped.

"What about main camp?"

"They're the furthest, they won't get word for a while." the man said, finally regaining his breath.

"damn it... How well are your search parties armed? If they could take Kagami down, they must have used deceit or must have purely overpowered her..." Konata mumbled as she continued pacing in the large tent.

"The search parties are just squads of regular soldiers, about 10 to 12 men per squad." the man informed.

"Tsukasa, can you get us to Miyuki right now?"

"Onee-chan..."

"Tsukasa?" Konata asked but Tsukasa was simply blank faced, staring at the walls, "damn, shock must have got her..."

"If it's communication, I can get in contact with the bowmen southwest of us in about 5 minutes." the messenger said.

"Tell Miyuki to meet up back here, the bowmen will have to use the second in command for the time being."

"yes ma'am!" the messenger shouted as he ran out the tent.

"dammit Kagami, what happened to you?"

------------

"With her, there's simply no way the rubinilains can win, they're going to be too distracted trying to find her!"

Kagami opened her eyes as she heard several male voices talking and laughing.

"let's see them finding us down here, this place is simply genius."

"The battle should start soon too, they were supposed to move out when we caught her."

Kagami could barely see as her vision was extremely blurred probably still from the knockout solution. She tried to get up but realized that she was tied down to something

"Where the hell am I?" she thought as her senses slowly returned.

She could see that she was in a cave of sorts, high ceiling, rough walls and she saw she was tied to a stalagmite. There was also a table and some chairs on the far side of the room where 5 men were resting.

"Oh that bitch is awake." one of the men said as he walked over to Kagami, "Having fun?."

Kagami spat in the mans face.

"Feisty one here." the man laughed as he wiped his face, "How bout' we teach ya a lesson?"

The other four men stood up while cracking their knuckles and Kagami knew that they were going to beat her. Bracing herself, she felt the man she spat on punch her in the jaw.

"get this bitch's armor off, I can't punch this crap." the man yelled as the other men closed in on Kagami.

------------------

Konata, Tsukasa, and Miyuki were currently gathered in the tent by the cavalry to discuss what they would, what they could, do for Kagami.

"We can go ourselves..." Tsukasa suggested, who had regained her senses from the shock.

"But then we'll leave or men by themselves." Miyuki countered.

Konata sat in her chair, staring at the large map laid out on the table, "Where could they possibly be that over two hundred men would not find?" Konata asked as she continued looking at the map.

"I would say they have to be in some structure, probably a cave of sorts." Miyuki suggested.

Konata quickly looked over the map again to confirm her thoughts, "But it's all woods within five miles, and they couldn't have gotten that far."

"How about a manmade underground cave?" Tsukasa suggested.

Both Konata and Miyuki stared at Tsukasa, "What did you say?" Konata asked.

"A manmade underground cave or something?" Tsukasa replied

"Ah... I think I know where they're hiding, or at least a general idea." Miyuki said as he pointed to an area mostly a plain of grass, "If they hid here, the tall grass would obscure them from being seen when they dug the ground, and it would shield them from any eyes that may have looked in that area."

Konata took a closer look on the map, the area was approximately about 3 acres and was only about half a mile from the border so it would have been easy to send men in during the night to dig.

Konata quickly got up and yelled for a messenger, she told the man to tell the infantry division to send a platoon of soldiers up and a squad of bowmen.

"We'll go to that area and scout it out to see if we find anything, we can overpower those bastards if we have this many men." Konata said fiercely.

"Ok, we should gear up then." Miyuki said as she grabbed her bow.

----------------

"now tell us, why were you rejected?" Fukuya asked as the four girls rode to the border, which was coming up over the horizon.

"can we stop for a second?" Patty asked.

Minami pulled her horse in and signaled the others to stop as well. Party jumped off the horse as she faced the three girls.

"could you girls distract the guards for 5 minutes? If they're distracted I can sneak across and meet up with you down the road." Patty said as she looked at each girl In turn.

Minami sat there, pondering whether to do this or not. She knew that Patty might be just using them and that they could get in trouble with the guards if she were caught since it would be obvious that they were helping.

Finally she came to a conclusion, "Ok but give us something of yours, as insurance."

"Insurance?" Patty asked, "How about my weapons? Can't do much without them."

"Ok that works." Fukuya said as she stuck out her hand to get the weapons.

"Oh shut up Fukuya, you just want them to play around with." Hikasa said.

"Ok, we can do that, but if you still go on by yourself..." Minami said.

"Ok ok fine, here." Patty said as she gave all her weapons to Minami. Taking kunais from her thighs, poison darts from her sleeves, and several other unusual places.

"Ok, now get going, meet up about a mile along the road, I'll be waiting." Patty said as she dashed off towards the guardhouse.

"If she gets caught..." Hikasa mumbled.

"I hope she won't." Fukuya said as she started towards the guardhouse.

"What are we supposed to do anyways?" Hikasa asked as she turned her horse and followed Fukuya.

"Well we can just ask some questions and say it's the first time we're going to Badrun." Minami suggested as she too followed Fukuya.

As the girls approached the guardhouse, two men stepped out to check the luggage the girls were carrying, "Halt! Let us inspect your belongings before we let you pass." the larger of the two men said.

"Formalities." Fukuya said while rolling her eyes as she got off the horse and looked at the building. It was a large stone structure about the size of a large house with stone walls over 10 feet high marking the border.

"How is she going to get past that?" Fukuya thought to herself as she let the men take charge of her quiver of arrows.

"Hey, this is the first time we're going to Badrun, mind telling us some things about it?" Hikasa asked while the guards inspected the saddles and bags that the horse carried.

Apparently, the guards were very proud of their kingdom and looked pleased that Hikasa had asked, they proceeded to drone on about what a great kingdom Badrun was and would not stop.

As the two guards were talking, Minami looked over to her right as she saw a figure climb into a second story window into the large stone structure.

"How did she get there?" Minami thought to herself.

After what seemed forever, the two guards stopped and let the girls through.

"Did you see Patty climb into that window?" Minami asked as the girls got back onto the road and headed into the heavily wooded area.

"What? You don't mean she actually climbed into one of those windows do you?" Fukuya asked

Minami simply nodded in return.

Fukuya, sighing, sped up her horse to go up ahead to Patty.

--------------------

Konata, Tsukasa, and Miyuki now led several dozen men into the area that Miyuki had predicted where the Enemy was. Making sure to set up a circular perimeter, Konata ordered the men to slowly walk in towards the center while searching the ground for any unnatural objects of manmade.

"This better work..." Konata muttered as she sat up in a tree with the other two girls, supervising the search.

Miyuki did not reply, looking intently towards the field, she narrowed her eyes.

"Is there something wrong Miyuki?" Tsukasa asked, noticing how Miyuki was looking at the field with such eyes.

"Well, it just seems like something isn't right... Like something is going to go horribly wrong... I doubt the Lacinians would be so dumb as to set up their hideout in where we would guess first..." Miyuki replied without letting her gaze off the field.

Hearing this, Konata suddenly jumped off the tree and ram towards the field.

"Where are you going?!" Tsukasa yelled but Konata did not reply and kept running.

As Konata ran, her suspicions grew more and more. She had also been thinking along the lines with Miyuki and had feared that the Lacinians would set up a trap where the Rubinilians would look first.

"Guys stop! Move as far away from the center as fast as you can!!" Konata yelled as she drew her sword but it was too late.

As the men she had yelled at looked up in surprise, the center, which was fairly close to the men, suddenly ruptured, sending several men flying through the air and the men who were able to stand their ground looked up at a hideous looking "Thing" that had grown out from the ground.

Seeing the commotion from afar, Tsukasa and Miyuki were startled by the thing that had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

The "Thing" seemed like an overgrown crossbreed of a giant ringworm and a centipede, its head was like that of a worm but its body was made from hard shells that resembled a centipede. It had no visible eyes and was quite obviously not friendly. The thing itself was over 20 feet tall but a portion of it was still underground.

"Oh my..." Miyuki whispered as she jumped down and ran up to a tree that was closer to the monster and took her bow out and yelled in the loudest voice she could muster, "Get away from that thing as soon as you can! Archers, come back towards me! Infantry, fall back for now!"

Konata, who was basically the only one near the wormlike being, stood her ground with the small short sword she had and stared up at the worm, "What the hell are you?"

Tsukasa, who had been too shocked to move, finally snapped out of her shock and jumped down herself, running towards Miyuki and climbing the tree, which was about 15 feet, herself.

The men were now all at a somewhat safe distance away from the monster, being over 50 feet away, the archers ran towards Miyuki with their bows drawn and the infantry scattered in small groups into the tall grass.

"Konata!! Move away from that thing! We have no idea what it can do!" Miyuki shouted.

Konata, knowing this, slowly backed away as the worm turned its head to look at Konata. It made a low growling sound as its head lashed out at Konata with it's round spiked mouth heading straight for her.

Konata smoothly rolled to her left and raised her sword, slashing at its head. Her sword made contact and cut but the monster appeared not to have noticed. Seeing it's momentary confusion, Konata ran further away from it towards the opposite direction from Miyuki.

"men! Bring up your bows and fire on my command! Aim for it's head but if you can't, just try to hit it!" Miyuki shouted as she brought up her own bow, "Ready! Aim! Fire!"

A barrage of over 50 arrows flew to the monster and most of it cleanly hit it's head, yet it still isn't even flinch from the arrows piercing it's skin.

"What the hell? It's like it can't feel pain..." Konata muttered as she saw the arrows strike the beast. Konata then ran in a semi circle around the worm back towards Miyuki and Tsukasa while picking up the sword of one of the fallen men.

"umm... Maybe we should retreat for now..." Tsukasa suggested in a terrified voice.

"It'll only chase us..." Miyuki replied as she readied another barrage and ordered her men to fire, again with no reaction from the worm.

"But look how its body is in the ground still, maybe it's glued there? And we could probably use Misao and Ayano's help here..." Tsukasa countered as Konata ran back to the two.

"There's something wrong with that thing, it can't feel pain or something, it's not reacting to my blade or your arrows..." Konata panted as she made it back.

"Ok fine, we'll retreat for now Tsukasa, just hope your theory is right..." Miyuki said.

Konata then called back the infantry for a temporary retreat.

--------------------

Author: been awhile since I wrote a chapter...

Konata: I don't care, where is Kagami? what's happening at the front? What is that thing? How are we going to get through this?!

Miyuki: this is a bit troublesome...

Author: don't worry, good guys always win in the end... Or do they?

Tsukasa: that doesn't sound good fir us...


	15. Rescue

The men had continuously beat Kagami for about 15 minutes before going back to the table to rest. In pain, Kagami managed to get herself back into a sitting posture. She had several cuts on her face and exposed arms and legs with a few complimentary bruises.

"Those bastards... When I get them..." Kagami growled as she tried to undue the rope tying her to the stalagmite, but to no avail.

Thinking that maybe she could rub the rope against the rough surface of the stalagmite to cut it, she started to try it.

------------------

After running back from the monster, Konata, Miyuki, and Tsukasa had managed to get back to the main HQ tent and had sent the men back up to the front. Now they were having a meeting with Misao, Ayano, Sasunaka, and Okamoku.

"if that monster you fought indeed is rooted to the ground, we can eventually crush it with ranged attacks but if it managed to leave the ground... We basically have a giant, so far indestructible, man eating monster on the loose..." Okamoku concluded.

"And don't forget Kagami was taken... We have no idea where she is or even if she's still alive." Sasunaka remarked.

"please don't say that..." Tsukasa pleaded.

"Well from my point of view... No means to offend, this is a lose-lose situation, we can't handle the front, search and rescue, and try to eradicate that thing. At most, we have enough resources to handle two and that's still pushing the limit..." Misao finally said as she tipped her chair and fiddled with her bow.

"Saving Kagami is a top priority, she's part of the prophecy so she can't die... After that eradicating that worm would come next in my opinion, if it does get loose then it alone can destroy Lacinia, better to destroy it while it's still stationary." Ayano said.

Okamoku stood up and said in a slightly annoyed voice, "Are you saying that our kingdom should be defiled by those Lacinians?!"

Miyuki calmly answered by telling him that it was better than having a seemingly indestructible worm rampaging around Lacinia.

"Ok for now let's distract the Lacinians and slowly pull back while trying to keep a illusionary strong front up. Misao, Ayano, and Tsukasa, could you three with however many troops you need try and kill that disgusting thing?" Konata asked, "Miyuki and I with a few squads of soldiers will continue the search."

Okamoku and Sasunaka then stood up, saying that they were going to go discuss how to withdraw the troops without letting the Lacinians know.

"Any questions? No? Ok let's go." Misao said as she jumped back and ran outside while grabbing Tsukasa and Ayano.

Konata and Miyuki also stood up and headed for the tent door.

----------------------

"So patty, you held your side of the deal, here are your weapons back." Minami said as he handed the toys back.

The girls were by a cross junction and were sitting on the grass. The place was mostly plains and hills, not many trees in sight except for the ones behind them that they had come through.

Patty took her weapons as she thanked Minami and put them back where they belonged. After finishing, she stood up and asked, "You never told me what you're doing in badrun have you?"

Minami, Fukuya, and Hikasa looked at each other, wondering whether it was safe to tell her or not.

Finally, Minami spoke up, "do you know that the Lacinians are invading Rubinile as we speak?"

Patty nodded.

"Well to tell you truth, there's a lot more going on, more is at stake then just the kingdom of Rubinile, almost big enough to say the world is at stake, it's very existence possibly."

Patty looked and listened with widening eyes.

"Lacinia, being the 'bad guys', have gotten kingdoms to the west to help them, they outnumber Rubinile at around 3:2 but more men would most likely assist Lacinia so the numbers will change..."

Patty nodded, urging Minami to go on.

"So to have a fair fight, we need more men, which is why we're going to the north east kingdoms, to ask for their help. You remember Konata, Tsukasa, Kagami, and Miyuki?"

Patty nodded.

"They're from Lacinia, they were exiled for various reasons, the main reason because king Sakimoto of Lacinia felt that the girls were a threat to his conquest and the girls came to Rubinile, convincing us that we should help the fight." Minami finally finished.

"She just spoke about a years worth of words just now didn't she?" Fukuya remarked to Hikasa.

"Maybe..."

Patty, stunned at the magnitude of the war going on down south, simply stood where she was for a few minutes with a blank expression. Finally, she regained her thoughts and said one word, "Wow..."

Minami went back to her horse and got on she asked patty, "Are you coming? We still have a ways to go."

"Coming."

------------------

Tsukasa now led Misao, Ayano, and about a platoons worth of bowmen with flaming arrows. As she was the only one in the group who knew where the thing was, she was leading. They were still in the heavily forested areas, about a mile from the small clearing. Although it may have been the imagination, the undergrowth seemed to have increased since when Tsukasa and the girls had last been here a few hours ago.

"So what's that thing like?" Misao asked.

Tsukasa explained how the thing looked like a centipede with its head replaced with a worms head. She continued how the thing also had massive teeth in its ring like mouth.

"Well this ought to be easy! It's rooted into the ground right?" Misao asked Tsukasa.

"Well... It is but it didn't seem to feel pain." Tsukasa answered as she pushed aside a branch.

The 3 girls and the soldiers continued on towards the clearing.

--------------------

Kagami diligently continued rubbing the rope against the stalagmite. She had been doing it for the last hour and seemed to be getting somewhere. Kagami took a break and looked around the small room again to notice that there was a small passageway in the dark she had not noticed before. She decided that she would escape from there if she ever got the rope undone.

"You, go check on that bitch."

Kagami's heart stopped for a moment as she heard footsteps approach her. If they saw the frayed rope, they would be able to guess that she was trying to escape.

The man approached, quickly checking to make sure she was still there and quickly left.

Kagami let out a sigh of relief as the man did not even inspect her.

She continued trying to fray the rope away.

---------------------

Miyuki, Konata, and 2 squads of infantrymen slowly and carefully walked through the forest, searching for any possible entrance to a secret cave or anywhere that they could have hid Kagami. The area was densely forested with only a few rays of light poking through the trees up above.

"Miyuki, any ideas?" Konata asked.

"none at the moment..." Miyuki said as she pushed a branch out of the way.

"Well we have to find Kagami one way or another so let's keep at it, no one is going to hurt my Again!"

"Just don't get too worked up..."

-------------------

As the sun shone brightly above the girls, Minami saw smoke from up ahead.

"I wonder what's going on up there?" she said out loud.

"What?" Fukuya asked

Minami pointed to the smoke up ahead as Hikasa narrowed her eyes and said, "That doesn't seem like normal smoke... It's not from a campfire to put it lightly."

"Should we check it out?" Patty asked.

"From a distance." Minami said as she went off the road and onto the grass. The other girls followed suit.

As the girls came close to the fire, Patty gasped, Fukuya cringed, and Hikasa and Minami narrowed their eyes while covering their noses.

In front of them laid a burning corpse of a dragon. The dragon was about 20 feet long and 15 feet tall. It had many apparent wounds such as arrows, spears and sword marks on it. The smoke had seemed unnatural because of the oil and other flammable material thrown onto the corpse, probably in an attempt to get rid of the body.

"What... Happened here?" Patty finally managed to say as she got off Minami's horse.

Hikasa got off her horse and walked up to the dragon while wrapping a cloth around her mouth and inspected the dragon.

"This is a King Pfalka Dragon, but these guys only reside in Mt. Trinity in Lacinia, on the peninsula northeast of Placina..."

"What's a dragon all the way from Lacinia doing here?!" Fukuya exclaimed.

Patty grabbed her forehead as she quietly said, "I think Lacinia wants to distract the northeastern kingdoms so they can't send in any re-inforcements to Rubinile if and when we convince them to help us..."

Minami, Fukuya, and Hikasa all looked at Patty as they realized how possible that possibility was.

Minami clenched her fist as she looked up at the sky.

"dammit... This isn't fair..." she said through clenched teeth as she pulled her sword out and stabbed it into the ground with great force.

"Minami..." Hikasa quietly said.

"They outnumber Rubinile as it is and now their using dragons to try and make sure we don't get any re-inforcements, they have the mightiest sage alive right now and they have the whole of the eastern kingdoms behind them..."

Fukuya walked up to Minami as she put we hands on the knight's shoulder.

"That's why we have to work 10 times, no, 20 times harder to make sure we disappoint them." Fukuya said with a smile.

Minami looked at the corpse, to Fukuya, to Hikasa, Patty, then finally towards Rubinile.

Minami breathed deeply with her eyes closed.

"I get it, we'll make sure Konata and the forces down south get the forces they need."

"That's what I like to hear!" Fukuya exclaimed as she pulled the sword out of the ground and stuck it back into its sheath.

--------------------

"Just... A bit... More..." Kagami said as she felt the rope on her hand get weaker and weaker.

Finally, the rope snapped with a soft snap. Kagami felt tears come up to her eyes as she realized she was finally free but soon fought off the tears as a new emotion set in.

Pure hatred.

Although Kagami could just escape through the passageway, most likely how she was brought in, but she had to get revenge.

Kagami slowly stood up as she walked to the wall and slowly crept up to the door where the men were chatting and laughing.

She picked up a few small rocks and threw it at the wall opposite her multiple times, trying to get the men to see what the sound was.

"What was that?"

Her ploy was working, she could hear a man standing up from a chair and walk towards the door. Kagami picked up another piece of rock, which by luck happened to be a wedge shaped rock.

As the door opened and the man stepped out, Kagami smashed the rocks sharp end straight into the mans neck.

The man gave a gurgling scream as he fell to the ground and thrashed around.

Hearing the commotion, the other 4 men quickly got up and ran towards the door as Kagami pulled the man in front of her's sword out and prepared for another lunge.

The next man, making the same mistake, dashed straight out where Kagami thrust the sword into the mans side. The man screamed as the metallic blade went through his organs and fell on his face. Seeing the mistake of the last two, the remaining 3 men didn't rush out, rather one man jumped out with his sword in a defensive position as Kagami slashed at the man who blocked her attack. The man smirked as he pulled his sword back and the other two men came out with swords drawn.

Seeing that she was outnumbered, and overpowered, Kagami slowly backed up to the opening.

"I would advise against going in there." one of the men said.

"like I care about what you think." Kagami spat as she continued to back into the passageway.

-----------------

"Chief! I think I found something!" a soldier exclaimed to Konata as he knelt down and brushed away at something on the ground.

Konata jogged over to the soldier with Miyuki following closely. As Konata got closer, she saw something that vaguely resembled a handle made from a rock. Konata knelt down next to the soldier and grabbed the handle like object. Not to her surprise, it indeed was a handle as Konata pulled it open to reveal a small ladder leading down.

"Wow..." Miyuki said. The hole was deep enough that the bottom could not be seen.

"I'll go in first ma'am." the soldier who found the door offered.

"no it's ok, the leader has to watch out or their troops, I'll go in first." Konata replied as she pulled out a dagger and started climbing down the hole.

"I'll go next." Miyuki declared as she followed Konata in, "I want one squad in here and one squad out there."

"Yes ma'am." the soldiers saluted as they split up.

Konata continued down the ladder and after about a minute, she finally felt the bottom of the hole. As she stood up, she quickly pulled out a torch from her bag Misao had given her awhile back and lit it with some flint and steel.

The area was instantly lighted, revealing that they were in a long passageway of sorts. The passageway was obviously man-made, it seemed like a mineshaft without the rails. It had the wooden support beams and the walls were made from rocks.

"We should send the squad one way and us two the other." Miyuki suggested as she too reached the bottom.

"Sounds good."

As the squad of soldiers reached the bottom, Konata told the sergeant, the highest ranked soldier there, about their plan and the man saluted as he told the other soldiers of their plan and went the opposite way with Konatas torch.

"Well good thing I have like 20 torches." Konata laughed as she pulled another one out and lit it.

"Alright let's go." Miyuki said as she pulled her bow out and Konata took her short-sword out and started down the passage.

--------------

"This is new..." Misao laughed as she, Tsukasa, Ayano, and the bowmen stared at the centipede like worm still rooted into the ground.

"does that thing have eyes?" Ayano asked.

"I don't see any..." the Captain on the bowmen said.

"Shoot it once." Misao ordered the bowmen, "One barrage."

"Yes ma'am." The captain said as he ordered the bowmen to light their arrows on fire and fire a barrage.

The arrows all hit the beast in one place or another but didn't seem to feel any pain, more like a nuisance and it turned around to look at the soldiers.

"Strange..." Misao muttered as she rubbed her chin.

The beast gave a deafening roar, a low rumble that made the whole ground shake. It brought its head back, as if in preparation to strike.

"Move back immediately." Ayano ordered with a bark as she got in front of the group and muttered something under her breathe.

The beast lunged forward as something flew out from its mouth. The object looked like a bowling ball on steroids to put it lightly.

As the object sped up and flew towards the group, Ayano looked at the object with hard eyes as it hit some kid of invisible barrier and fell to the ground.

"Jeez Ayano, you could have told me, I would have helped you out there." Misao complained as she waved her hands and threw the oversized ball back at the wormlike beast. The ball miraculously went right back into it's mouth and flew out the back of its head. The beast just stood straight for a second as it slowly toppled backwards and fell onto the ground with a deafening thud.

"Uhh... How much force did you throw that ball back with?" Tsukasa asked.

"Hmm, well I would say at least 10tons worth of impact force." Misao yawned, "That's it? I was hoping for something more fun!"

The soldiers stared in awe as none of them had ever seen a magician in action.

"Show off." Ayano laughed as she regained her usual air of happiness.

"See, if Ayano gets angry or serious, she can be quite dangerous." Misao joked as she turned back around and started walking away.

As the rest of the group started to turn around, the ground yet again started to shake. Tsukasa slowly turned around and gave a small squeak as she saw about 5 of the same monsters appear out of the ground.

"This might not be so easy after all." Ayano muttered.

"Well more fun at least." Misao mumbled.

----------------

Kagami could hear the men behind her giving chase to her while they laughed. On their pursuit, several more men had come from different rooms and now there were about a dozen men chasing her. Thinking they were just out of their minds, she continued running down the dark passageway. On the way out from the room she had been held captive, she had taken a torch off the wall and was now using it to see in the otherwise pitch black passage.

"Where the hell am I?" She muttered as she continued running from the men for several minutes, she got to a fork in the passageway. She quickly decided to go right and continued down the passageway. When the men behind her saw her run right, they all started laughing madly as they stopped giving chase for a second.

"What the hell is wrong with them?" Kagami muttered as she continued running.

After a minute more of running, to her horror, she saw a deep gorge ahead of her. She stopped running as she came to the edge and looked down. The gorge was at least 50 feet deep so jumping was obviously not an option. Kagami looked to the other side and estimated about 20 feet to the other side.

"Oh damn this as why they were laughing..."

Kagami considered running back but decided that rather than running back into about a dozen men, she stood her ground while extinguishing her torch.

She could hear the men coming down the passage.

------------------

Konata and Miyuki were running as fast as they could. While walking earlier they had heard heinous laughter down the passageway and were now running towards it.

While running, Konata noticed that the supporting beams were growing scarcer and scarcer until there were no more beams left, rather the tunnel seemed like rock solid walls from minerals, rocks, and other hard substances. As the two ran further, they heard more laughter and a loud shout.

Konata stopped dead in her tracks.

"Was... That Kagami?!" she asked Miyuki.

"Sounded like her... Now let hurry up!" Miyuki said as she grabbed Konata and started running faster than ever.

--------------------

In front of Kagami stood about a dozen men, most with some sort of armor and all of them had long swords except for the men who had captured Kagami, they had short swords like Kagami.

It didn't really matter how much she was better than them on a one on one, but when they outnumbered her to this extent, it would be impossible to do anything other than a suicide tactic.

"Hehe, that bitch tried to run and see what happens to her?" the man who had blocked Kagami's strike said.

The rest of the men all laughed as they all drew their swords.

------------------

While running, Konata and Miyuki had reached a fork in the road and had split up, Miyuki going left and Konata going right.

Konata now ran with her sword drawn towards the laughter, which was growing louder by the second.

As she further, she came to yet another fork except this time, she was coming up the split of the fork. As she stopped running for a second, she heard more laughter from the other split in the fork so ran that way. As she ran further, she saw lift around the corner, a torchlight, and extinguished her own torch and continued running up.

When she rounded the curve, she saw about a dozen soldiers closing in on something with their swords drawn. Konata instantly realized the "Something" was Kagami and yelled as loud as she could at the men to stop.

Konata walked up to the men who were now laughing their heads off at Konatas tiny size but as the men laughed however, Konata heard Miyukis voice shout, "Kagami get down!!" And saw one man topple over with an arrow sticking out of his chest.

The men immediately stopped laughing as they spun around to see Miyuki on the other side of the gorge, loading another arrow as he shot another man down.

Taking the chance of surprise, Konata dashed forward with 2 daggers and quickly stabbed 2 men in their kidneys as Kagami ran forward with her sword raised and dismembered a man and dashed to the other side to Konata while the men were all bewildered as their numbers had quite suddenly been reduced from 12 to 6.

"Thanks for getting here on such great timing." Kagami thanked as she took Konatas short sword so she had dual swords.

Konata pulled out 2 more daggers as she got ready for another skirmish.

The men, still in a slight state of shock as to what ha just happened, threw their weapons down and quickly surrendered.

Slightly confused, Konata turned around to see the squad of soldiers that had went the other way coming up to them.

"I see we missed the party." the Sergeant pouted with a semi-serious face as he sheathed his sword.

"Well it wasn't much fun anyways, these guys were too easy even with just us three here." Konata laughed, "Mind taking charge of theses P.O.W.'s?"

"Yes ma'am" the sergeant said as he and the soldiers got the men in front of then up and started leading them back down the passageway.

"now that's the second time I saved your butt." Konata giggled as she started playing with Kagami's hair once again.

"I would have been fine even without you..." Kagami stubbornly retorted.

"Are you two going to stand there talking all day? We still got a war we have to help with up there you know?" Miyuki shouted across the gorge.

"Coming!" Konata shouted back as she led Kagami back down the passageway, back up to the war outside.

-----------------------

"Apparently the only way to get to Fijinka, the Capitol of Badrun, is to either go through the forbidden forest, or to detour all the way around the forbidden forest, which takes an extra 10 to 20 days to do." Hikasa said as she came out of the local general store and came back to the others who were standing by a fountain.

The girls had finally made it to a town, Sukanva, to rest up. The town wasn't anything near impressive, a few dozen houses, a general store, an inn, and a few other buildings. The town only held about 100 people and would only profit from travelers who stopped by the inn.

"Really? Well we cant exactly spare 10 to 20 days on detouring around some stupid forest can we?" Fukuya asked as she stretched.

Patty immediately interjected, "I remember that forest, it's serious stuff, not some joke. I had a friend who went in... Never seen again."

"How dangerous is the forbidden forest exactly? They usually exaggerate the danger in names and create tall tales...." Minami asked.

"Well they said that almost no one ever goes in there since it's so dangerous but the people who have had the nerve to enter never come out, just like patty said. " Hikasa informed.

Minami thought deeply for a second before concluding, "The war needs as many re-enforcements as soon as they can, we don't have the 10 to 20 days to spare. We go in."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Patty asked.

Minami answered by saying that it would be too late if they wasted 10 to 20 days so it was better to risk it than guaranteed failure.

The forbidden forest was approximately 5 miles northeast of them, the forest itself covering a huge expanse of the region, nearly 50 square miles and covered most of the right half of Badrun.

"For the night we'll rest up here and leave early tomorrow morning." Minami decided.

And so the girls went into the inn and got rooms for themselves.

-----------------------

Author: am I switching the POV's too quickly?

Hikasa: why are you asking us?

Fukuya: we're only stupid OC's right?

Author: hey don't call yourselves stupid -_-

Kagami: what's happening with Tsukasa and her group?

Author: hmm good question, you'll find out soon enough...

Konata: the war?

Author: patience... Patience...


	16. Retreat

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NOTE

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I will be away from a computer for the next 6 weeks, do not expect new chapters for those 6 weeks(6/11/09 ~ 7/22/09). however i will bring my itouch which i write all my chapters on so i WILL continue writing, just i wont be able to upload any of them but dont think i quit writing this story, i enjoy writing this story and it lets me use my imagination, thanks for reading too!

Warriors Hearth Chp16

Misao stared back at the 5 giant replicas of the beast that she had just slayed. Wondering how she was going to manage to slay all of them while defending her and the rest of the group. She looked over to Ayano who too had the same expression of worry.

"Tsukasa, did you ever practice those magics I started teaching you?" Misao asked as the beasts squirmed around, almost as if trying to figure out where the group was.

"Oh I really can't do anything yet except for some simple stuff as far as offense goes..." Tsukasa answered.

On the night that the group had arrived in Flatine, Misao had started teaching Tsukasa the art of magics as Misao had thought Tsukasa held potential.

"Ok, don't force yourself here then." Ayano instructed.

"for now, us two will do everything." Misao instructed as she walked up to the beasts with Ayano following closely.

As the two walked up the beasts, seeming to have noticed them, all turned their heads to face the duo walking towards them.

"Hey how far up are they going to walk?!" the Captain of the bowmen asked in alarm as the two were within throwing distance of the gigantic beasts.

"Don't ask me, I pretty much came just to let them know where these things were." Tsukasa said as the two magicians stopped about 30 feet in front of the closest worm, just out of striking distance of the beasts.

All five beasts pulled their heads back again, probably in preparation for the oversized ball. As the beasts pulled their heads back however, both Misao and Ayano seemed to disappear into thin air.

"What the?" a soldier yelled.

Everyone, including the beasts, all seemed extremely confused as the girls had simply vanished. However Tsukasa spotted an object flying from the sky, unable to make out what it exactly was, she craned her head and squinted to try to make out the falling object. The object, which was extremely large turned out to be a giant rock.

Tsukasa stared in awe as the rock crushed all five beasts.

Everyone stared at where the beasts had stood a minute ago, not sure how to react.

"And where would the two magicians have gone...?" the captain asked after a minute of awed silence. As if being summoned Misao and Ayano reapeared where they had disappeared from.

"uhh what?" the soldiers asked at the same time.

"Complicated magics, nothing you'll understand." Misao said lightly as she came back towards the group, "Well a bit more fun than the first one."

"Are you just going to leave that humongous rock lying there?" Tsukasa asked.

"Oh yes." Ayano exclaimed as she turned around and muttered something as the rock disappeared as suddenly as she and Misao had disappeared.

"I get the feeling that I won't be learning any of those anytime soon..." Tsukasa laughed.

---------------

Konata, Kagami, and Miyuki were now running full speed back towards the headquarters. The girls and the soldiers had separated upon leaving the cave as the soldier went back up to the front, the girls were heading back to Okamoku and Sasunaka to report Kagami was safe.

"And what happened to Tsukasa?" Kagami questioned.

"She, Misao and Ayano went to slay a giant beast that appeared out of nowhere when we were trying to find you." Miyuki informed while dodging branch.

Konata then began explaining between breaths what had happened earlier when they had been searching for Kagami.

"She's probably just going to get in the way." Kagami sighed.

"I'm sure she's doing fine." Miyuki assured.

-----------------

The Forbidden Forest, an area covering nearly a quarter of the entire Badrunian kingdom and spilling out to Naji to the northeast. As rumors has it, any who enter never leave. No one truly knows what lies within due to the fact that anyone who ever escaped the forests clutches were either too shocked and put into a state of mental deterioration or had their memories simply erased. Its forests were so thick that it made a wall of greenery, unsurpassable except by the entrances located periodically around its perimeter.

Minami, Fukuya, Hikasa, and Patty now stood at one of those opening aforementioned.

"So what's so forbidden about it? It looks like a normal forest." Fukuya asked as she stood before underneath the first tree. The tree itself had a dark presence about it. As if evil spirits resided within the tree itself.

"Obviously we either have a blind girl here or she's too stupid to realize the answer is in front of her." Hikasa said in exasperation as she walked up and lightly hit Fukuya in the head.

"Be on your guards, we really have no idea what's inside." Minami said as she pulled her sword out and walked ahead of Hikasa and Fukuya.

Patty looked skeptically at the forests ahead as she too followed, her hands instinctively pulling out two kunais.

The four girls continued their advance, all four extremely alert to their surroundings. As the girls walked ahead however, Fukuya noticed something.

"Is it just me or is this place dead silent, like literally. I haven't seen a single animal, or even heard sounds other than ourselves for the last 5 minutes, and a forest is never this quiet..." Fukuya worried.

"We can still turn back can't we?" Patty asked in a slightly pleading voice.

"If we detour, Rubinile is guaranteed to lose, and if Rubinile falls, the rest of the kingdoms are virtually defenseless, Lacinia and her allies would have gained way too much momentum. We need to get Rubinile more men as fast as we can." Minami insisted.

And so the girls continued their rather eerie advance.

-------------------

"Good to see you all made it back." Sasunaka said as Misao, Ayano, Tsukasa, Konata, Kagami, and Miyuki all sat around the HQ tent yet again with Sasunaka and Okamoku.

All the girls nodded in return as Okamoku stood up, "As predicted, we won't be able to hold the front." Okamoku said in a slightly disappointed face, "However in sacrificing part of our lands, we have managed to rescue Kagami and slay the disgusting beasts that fouled our lands."

Miyuki raised her hand, awaiting Okamoku's acknowledgement.

"Yes Miyuki?"

"Exactly how many soldiers have we withdrawn and how many remain?"

Sasunaka answered it for Okamoku, "Of our 4000 infantry, we only have about 500 left but we positioned them to seem like a lot more. As for archers, we pulled back all 500. Cavalry is mostly in place, half of the 1000 cavalry are still in their positions. To sum it up, we only have a fraction of our full force and we sent all of them up to Sienthrop."

Konata then looked at the people around her, "Hey this might seem unrelated but how the heck did I end up here? A few months ago, I was just another citizen in Placina and now I'm at the head of another kingdom, trying to beat the Lacinian kingdom."

Misao sighed as she answered the question with one word, "prophecy."

"Anyways ignoring the idiot over there, are we reforming our lines at Sienthrop?" Kagami asked.

"rather than making multiple stands at weak defensive positions and losing our men, we figured making a strong stand at Sienthrop would be much more effective." Sasunaka answered.

Tsukasa, having a bright insight, interjected, "Wasn't there a river flowing from west to east about half way from here to Sienthrop?"

"Yes what about it?" Okamoku asked.

"Could we possibly set up a small diversionary team to lead the enemy to a specific location? Once the men start to cross, it would take awhile and a lot of men would be in the river itself, maybe if Ayano and Misao combine their efforts once again, they could completely freeze that portion of the river. The sudden temperature change would leave most men useless because of the shock it would cause, and either way they would be stuck in the river. Once that happens, we could use our archers and finish what men remain." Tsukasa explained

"Sorry but I don't think we can do that." Misao yawned.

"Why not?!" Kagami demanded.

"Well since none of you have ever done complicated magics, I'll explain. Magic uses a certain form of energy. Depending on the person, the total amount of this energy that can be stored differs. Ayano and I have an unusually large amount of this energy, which is why we were able to slay those beasts with that gigantic rock we formed out of the air. However that drained both of us of this energy, in other words we wouldn't have enough energy to cast a spell that would freeze the river." Misao patiently explained.

"Of course Tsukasa could do it herself." Ayano suggested.

Tsukasa gave a startled yell as she heard the suggestion, "B-b-but I can't do anything you two can't do!" she exclaimed.

"Don't worry, you can do it, lowering temperatures is pretty easy." Misao laughed

"Here come with us, we'll help you a bit." Ayano said as she and Misao stood up and left the tent.

Tsukasa looked at the rest of the people sitting at the table. Everyone nodded in approval so Tsukasa followed Ayano and Misao.

"Ok let's head out ourselves, the remaining men are slowly retreating themselves." Okamoku said as he stood up and pulled his saber out and left the tent.

------------------

The forest only grew darker as the hours passed. The girls had traveled far enough that the entrance had disappeared from sight long ago. The sky was no longer visible either, the trees grew so thick to the point that no direct sunlight shone through. The Old Man's Beard that hung from the branches only added to the dark feeling of the forest.

Authors note: I know I know, I shouldn't put these but this is really bothering me, old mans beard is a plant.

"Jeez the path is even starting to disappear." Fukuya complained as she stepped over the root of a tree.

"No surprise, no one ever comes here. Actually, I'm surprised there was a path at all." Hikasa replied as she too stepped over the root.

"This place gets creepier by the minute too..." Patty remarked as she shuddered.

Minami continued walking in silence while checking her surroundings. As the girls continued on for about half an hour, they came across a rather unexpected clearing.

"What is this place?" Patty asked as she looked around at the area. The area, unlike the rest of the forest, had light pouring through the trees above. The area was a roughly circle like shape with a diameter of about 20 feet. In the middle layer a small pool of crystal clear water.

"This place seems really out of place when compared to the rest of the forest." Hikasa observed as she went up to the pool of water, "This seems safe to drink."

"I'm not sure about just drinking from that pool but I have some pots so if you want, we can boil it first to make sure it's safe." Patty offered as she reached into a bag similar to what Konata had.

"Thanks patty that would be of help." Minami thanked as she took a large pot from patty and filled it with water, "Hikasa, could you get a small fire going?"

"Ya sure." she replied as she caused a fire to appear a few feet in front of Minami.

"Thanks."

The girls set their stuff down to take a short break from the hours of walking.

-----------------

"retreat!"

The cry went all over the battlefield and the Rubinilians were in a full out retreat.

"It's a shame it had to come to this." Kagami muttered as she and the others overlooked the retreat from a high hill.

"Come on we better get out ourselves." Sakimoto insisted.

In the distance, catapults were seen being rolled up and an endless sea of men surge forward to chase after the retreating men.

"Tsukasa, you remember what I told you?" Misao asked as she looked at the men coming forward.

"I'm still not sure if I can manage it..."

"Don't worry it's relatively simple and effective." Ayano assured.

"Wait what are you making my sister do?" Kagami asked.

"No worries, nothing bad." Misao reassured, "Tsukasa?"

Tsukasa looked nervously at Misao and Ayano. She then turned her head back towards the massing forces and closed her eyes muttering something under her breath. Everyone except the two magicians and the apprentice seemed confused since nothing seemed to happen. Then out from behind the hill, a mass of men almost twice the size of the men in front of them appeared with a cavalry charge at the front.

"Whoa!" Konata exclaimed.

"What the?!" Sasunaka and Okamoku both yelled.

"Huh?!" Kagami exclaimed

The men had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and had given the Lacinians quite the scare. The whole Lacinian force stopped as it slowly started to move back in retreat.

"Where the hell did those men come from?! They aren't ours to say the least." Okamoku said.

"Oh those aren't real, their illusions. Illusions aren't hard to make at all, one of the most basic spells, which is why Tsukasa was able to summon so many illusions. Of course Ayano and I helped a little bit but mostly hers." Misao informed as she looked over at the retreating men with glee.

"Come on this is our chance, we better run for it. I'm sure they'll eventually figure out that they're being chased by phantoms." Sasunaka said as he started heading down the hill.

Everyone followed Sasunakas lead and started the journey up to the river.

------------------

Minami lifted her head as she heard a sudden noise. Seeing her move, Fukuya, Hikasa, and patty also looked up. The sound had sounded like a soft screech, as if from a distance. Then the screech came again, still sounding as if from far away.

"What was that?" Patty asked nervously as she slowly stood up.

"No idea but didn't sound like a friendly call." Fukuya remarked as she too stood up while picking up her bow.

Minami stood up as well as she pulled out her sword.

Hikasa stayed seated and closed her eyes for a minute. She then opened them back up and stood up. The other three girls gave her a questioning glance.

"I can't figure out what they are, but what I can tell is that it's hostile and wants us dead." Hikasa calmly informed.

"Wait what?!" Patty exclaimed, "Does that mean we're all going to die?!"

"No, I won't let that happen." Minami said with determination.

"Oh boy, do you know what they look like?" Fukuya asked.

"No, I don't have super eyes or anything."

"Come on sitting around won't help either." Minami said as she started walking towards the other entrance.

The other three girls followed after Minami with their weapons drawn. The screech could be heard at infrequent intervals, every few minutes. As the girls continued however, the screeches got more often and started to come from multiple sides.

"This doesn't seem good," Fukuya nervously said, losing her usual playful and carefree atmosphere.

The girls continued in silence as the screeching came so close that they couldn't be ignored any longer.

Hikasa suddenly stopped and turned around waving her staff. The screeching stopped at once as she turned around once more and said one word.

"run."

"What?" Patty asked.

"run! I froze time in this area temporarily, I'll keep it frozen for as long as I can but you girls have to run!" Hikasa urged, "As soon as time unfreezes, they'll swarm around us so get as far away from this spot as soon as you can, I'll be right behind!"

Minami narrowed her eyes while looking around and then nodded. She grabbed Fukuya and patty as she ran up ahead.

"Whoa! You can let me run myself you know!" Fukuya complained but kept running.

Hikasa turned around yet again and muttered under her breathe, "So we meet again..."

--------------------

Author: decently lengthed chapter if you ask me

Kagami: is length all you care about?

Author: that's what she sai- uhh nothing.

Konata: I can guess what you were going to say there.

Author: shh... I don't need Kagami figuring it out.

Kagami: you take me for an idiot?*annoyed look*

Author: uhh...


	17. New Powers

Warriors Hearth Chp17

The river that Tsukasa had mentioned earlier was coming into view. The river was relatively calm with clear water and the bottom was visible, about 6 feet deep. The ford was about five dozen feet wide and two dozen feet long before it got deeper again. The bulk of the Rubinilian forces were already half way to Sienthrop but the archers, as ordered, had stayed at the river waiting in the trees and bushes in the surrounding area.

"You sure you can do this?" Konata asked as she walked ahead of Tsukasa.

"I have to be able to do this, we need to buy time to set up defences..." Tsukasa said with determination.

As the group came up to the river, a barge on the other side came over to escort the group. Although the ford was shallow enough and wide enough for numerous men to wade across, it was also deep enough to row a boat across. As the soldier in the boat came accross, Sasunaka waved the girls ahead onto the boat saying, "Ladies first."

Upon reaching the other side, Sasunaka, Okamoku, and Miyuki ran up to the highest ranking bowmen, a Colonel, and started discussing orders. Konata and Kagami followed closely behind the Generals-turned-Tacticians to discuss their roles in the ambush. Tsukasa looked around and could not see a single archer aside from the Major. It proved how well they were camoflouged. She soon heard snorting as a platoon of cavalrymen came into view. Sasunaka had told her earlier that the cavalry would be the diversionary team.

"You ok there Tsukasa?" Misao asked as she came up from behind and patted Tsukasa.

"Yea... It's just this would be the first time I did anything this hard and it's such an important one too..." Tsukasa replied a bit weakly.

"Well if things go wrong, Misao and I can try to continue off of what you do." Ayano comforted.

"Th-Thanks..." The apprentice magician greatfully said.

---------------

"So we meet again..." Hikasa muttered.

"Indeed, a surprise to say the least." a voice laughed evilly. The voice came from all directions and seemed to be soft, yet loud at the same time, "what are you doing here? I thought I finished you off back at the Drahas Pass..."

"Not quite, close though." Hikasa said with a deadly voice.

"I lifted the barrier in Lacinia so I have my full power this time, you can't take possibly take me single handedly. Give up." The voice laughed again as an arrow flew out of the trees. Hikasa turned and blocked it with her staff she then muttered more words as a lightning bolt flew from the sky and incinerated the location where Hikasa thought the voice came from.

"It's no use, I'm not even around here." the voice said in hysterics. This time, the ground under Hikasa erupted as roots shot out in an attempt to grab her legs but Hikasa jumped cleanly out of the way as she froze the roots.

"Heh, fine." Hikasa muttered as she turned around and started running after Minami and the rest of the group. The voice yelled out, "You can't run or hide from me!"

-----------------

Minami looked back to make sure that Fukuya and Patty were keeping up with her, "Any sign of Hikasa?"

"No, haven't seen a trace of her, she's probably still holding whatever those things are off." Fukuya shouted as she ran after Minami.

"This is why I said I didn't want to go through this forest!" Patty yelled out.

"Well it's better us than a whole kingdom." Minami yelled back.

"Not much use if we all die in here!" Patty retorted.

Before Minami could reply however, she saw a hideous looking monster step out before the group from a tree. Surprised, Minami stopped running only a few dozen feet before it. The thing looked like a giant fly, about the same height as a Golden Retriever, that didn't have wings. It seemed to have only four legs but no arms. It was obviously an insect but one like never before.

"What the hell is that?!" Fukuya exclaimed as she came to a stop next to Minami and loaded her bow.

"You're asking the wrong person you know." Minami replied as she pulled out her sword and shield.

Instead of stopping, Patty ran on and jumped into the tree above the monster and threw several Kunais at it. The fly gave off a high pitched shriek as it reared up and spit some kind of green liquid at Patty who jumped back towards the rest of the girls, "That thing is NOT normal..."

"Stating the obvious is pointless you know." Fukuya laughed.

"I dont think we can go around it, it already knows we're here." Minami said as she stood in front of the other two.

This time, Fukuya climbed up onto a tree and fired three arrows at the monstrosity which pierced it's back and head. Again, it gave a high pitched shriek but this time, it started charging Minami. Minami stood her ground until the last moment and jumped to the right, cutting one of its legs cleanly off. The fly tripped and cartwheeled around before coming to rest as it rolled into a tree. Taking the chance, both Fukuya and Patty shot and threw their weapons at the monster. It gave another piercing shriek as it started to get seizure like movements before it finally stopped moving. Cautious, Minami slowly walked over to it and stabbed its head where she confirmed a kill.

"I just hope there aren't more of those..." Patty prayed while picking up her shurikens and kunais.

"That thing wasn't here to thank us was it?" Fukuya laughed uneasily as she went to retrieve her arrows.

Minami walked back towards the trail and shouted Hikasa's name and heard a returning shout, "Run! Get away as fast as you can!"

Minami heard the urgency in Hikasa's voice and knew that whatever was wrong couldn't be dealt with by Hikasa's powers alone. She hurridly told Patty and Fukuya to start running and continued deeper into the forest.

---------------------

Tsukasa could see dust rising up far in the distance. A sign that the diversionary team was on its way and that they would be here shortly. Everyone was currently hidden in the tall grasses and trees scattered along the river bank on the Rubinilian side. Tsukasa in particular sat behind a clump of tall grass about a few dozen yards back from the waters edge.

"You ready?" Misao asked as she held her own bow, a Longbow, close to her.

"Ya... I'm ready..." Tsukasa replied as she tensed.

Ayano sat next to Tsukasa as she checked papers and did calculations, as to what calculations, no one really knew.

Konata then walked over to Tsukasa, "We know you can do it Tsukasa, just believe in yourself."

Next came Kagami who closely followed Konata, "I know you can do it if you try Tsukasa."

Miyuki, who sat up in a tree, waved and gave a big smile at Tsukasa.

"I have to be able to do this..." Tsukasa muttered, "Sienthrop, no, the whole of Rubinile needs the time..."

The clouds of dust were now growing larger and larger. Soon the cavalrymen themselves were visible and the ones who had crossbows stopped and turned around, aiming extremely high, they shot their bolts and kicked their horses again to get them to start towards the river. As the cavalry reached the river, the men jumped off and let the horses swim to the other side as the men themselves threw any heavy equipment off and started wading or swimming across. Upon reaching the other side, the cavalry and horses dashed deep into the grass and disappeared. About five minutes later, the war banner of Laciena came into view. It was a large blue banner with a white stripe running down the center with two Arctic Wolves looking both ways and howling.

"They're here..." Misao said with narrowed eyes.

"Don't fire your bows until the freezing!" Sasunakas voice yelled out from somewhere.

Tsukasa looked at the men slowly marching towards the river. She knew they couldn't see any of them but she still felt like the whole army was staring right at her. The men continued their march with a seemingly endless flow of men coming into view. As the men reached the rivers edge, the Major at the front of the march stopped and sent men into the river to check the depth. After confirming the depth, the men held their swords above their heads and started to enter.

"Wait for it, I'll tell you when to cast." Misao instructed.

Ayano had put the papers away and was now focusing on the men crossing. The men slowly poured into the river, as the lead man was halfway across the river, at least 500 men were in the river as the Major at the front kept pushing more soldiers in. The men were now 20 feet away, 750 men. 10 feet, a thousand men. The lead man was now only a few feet from the edge.

"Now!!" Misao exclaimed.

Tsukasa had her eyes closed so she took the cue to focus her energy. She concentrated on the temperature of the flowing water before her, willing it to lower itself. Time seemed to freeze as she did this, it was the same with every spell, it seemed like she was the only non-frozen person around. Tsukasa continued concentrating, she concentrated to the point of the movement of each atom itself and willed it to slow down, thereby lowering it's temperature. She did this on a large scale, along the entire ford and beyond, she couldn't seem to stop herself, she couldn't stop her concentrating. Every atom on the Lacinian side of the river seemed to stop moving instantly, bringing the temperature down to a deadly level.

She finally collapsed as her mind simply could not take it anymore and time seemed to resume yet again.

"Holy..." Misao and Ayano both exclaimed as they saw the destruction on the river and other side.

"T-This was Tsukasa's doing?!" Konata voice yelled out.

"Oh my..." Miyuki said from her tree.

"Tsukasa..." Kagami said in disbelief.

Both Sasunaka and Okamoku were not heard, probably speechless at the destruction Tsukasa had caused.

The river itself had completely frozen as far as the eye could see, the lead man who was at the edge had turned blue with one foot out of the river, he was obviously dead. Further along the river, every man who had his body in the water was instantly killed by the temperature. On the ground, every man that had been in view had been frozen solid in their exact positions. The ground itself was covered in frozen grass, no frost, no snow, just pure frozen grass and ground.

"Tsukasa?" Misao asked as she tried to lift Tsukasa who had seemingly passed out after the spell. Kagami, Konata, and the others all ran to Tsukasa and checked on her.

"We did what we came to do, everyone fall back to Sienthrop, Misao, Tsukasa and I will teleport back to Sienthrop, she needs to rest immediately." Ayano commanded with a sudden spurt of authority.

The bowmen, who had come out of their hiding grounds all stared at the destruction at, and beyond, the river with wide eyes and dropped jaws. Okamoku and Sasunaka both stood up and yelled at the men, "Get moving, we'll follow shortly."

The bowmen all slowly, but eventually, started to turn back towards Sienthrop.

"Tsukasa... She's an unexpected one..." Misao muttered.

----------------------

Hikasa continuously ran through the Forbidden Forest, pondering why that the voice had been present in the Forest. The voice, without a doubt, had belonged to the powerful sage, Yamamoto. A year ago, Hikasa had been on an errand in an unmarked region in Rubinile, the Drahas Pass, sometimes reffered to as the Pass of the Dead. It was located in the North-West-West of Rubinile, at the entrance to the penisula in the North-West region of Rubinile. During the errand, she had stumbled across a cave after walking endlessly for hours and the sun had been high and strong. Tired, she had went into the cave to rest herself. After she had rested up, curious, she ventured deeper into the cave.

She had ventured into the secondary hideout of Yamamoto.

Deeper in the cave rested Yamamoto who was also casting rather troublesome spells. After venturing into the cave for about an hour, Hikasa came upon the room in which Yamamoto rested. Yamamoto himself was sitting with his back to the entrance where Hikasa stood. Not realizing who it truly was and feeling confident in her own powers, she had confronted Yamamoto.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hikasa asked as she stepped into the room.

"Who goes there?!" Yamamoto exclaimed as he spun around and brought his staff up.

"Hikasa Monezashi, Mage of Rubinile, now I should ask the same of you." Hikasa said in a dangerous voice.

"Guahahahaha, you think you can tell me what to do? Do you truly realize who you are looking at and talking to?" Yamamoto laughed hysterically.

"I'm talking to the old man who's going to get buried alive under here if he doesn't stop and leave." Hikasa answered confidently, still believing the man was bluffing.

"Let me show you then!" Yamamoto yelled while laughing madly as a giant gust pushed Hikasa back into the wall, "You are no match, for the great sage, Yamamoto!"

"What? Impossible! You're in Lacinia holding up that anti-magic barrier!" Hikasa exclaimed in disbelief, starting to believe the man at the strength of his magic.

"Indeed, but who said I can't do it from here?" Yamamoto laughed yet again as this time, a giant flame spurt forward from his staff at Hikasa. Hikasa countered with a blast of water from her own staff.

"You dare challenge me and you pay!" Yamamoto continued as the ceiling started to collapse on Hikasa. Hikasa summoned a barrier over her head as the rocks rolled off. Hikasa struggled with the amount of rocks falling on her as Yamamoto continuously laughed and started to move in on Hikasa. Finally, the rocks stopped falling and Hikasa quickly blasted Yamamoto back several yards as he was taken by surprise.

"Heh, you're better than you look." Yamamoto sneered as he moved with amazing speed despite his physical appearence of an old, dying man. He rushed at Hikasa and attempted to stab Hikasa with a knife he had created from air. Hikasa quickly dodged the slash and smashed Yamamoto's arms with her staff and then bound him in roots.

"Gahaha you think that's going to do anything?!" Yamamoto laughed hysterically as he disintergrated the roots binding him, "Better run."

Hikasa started backing up while casting as many magics as she could. Finally when she reached the entrance once again, she brought the rocks down on the entrance, hoping it would delay Yamamoto's pursuit. She quickly ran out of the cave and continued away from the cave as fast as she could.

Now she was in the same dillema, running from Yamamoto once again but this time, she had people to protect. She continued running after Minami and the group.

-----------------

Author: short chapter?

Hikasa: could we not do flashbacks?

Minami: what?

Author: nothing, and I'm doing it to let the readers know of what happened.

Konata: so is tsukasa like the next super sage?

Kagami: like I said, I don't want my sister as an old milennia old hag -_-


	18. Great Loss

Warriors Hearth Chp18

Minami saw Hikasa running up to the group while they momentarily paused from their escape from the Forest.

"Minami!" Hikasa shouted as she came to a stop and panted, "It's Yamamoto, there's no question about it."

"What?! How is that possible?!" Fukuya exclaimed as she heard Hikasa.

"He's lifted the barrier in Laciena he's here in full force as well." Hikasa continued

"What the heck are we going to do?!" Patty exclaimed.

"He's right after us, we need to either run, or run." Hikasa said with a rare show of humor.

"Seems like we better run since it's out only option, taking on Yamamoto would be pure suicide." Minami decided as she lifted her equipment and started towards the end of the forest once again.

"But why hasn't he found us yet?" Fukuya asked as she got up and set her bow.

"I cast a spell on us before so we can't be detected by magical means, which is the only way he's going to find us." Hikasa answered, "But it won't last forever, we better hurry up."

So the girls continued their escape.

-----------------

"Tsukasa?"

"Is she going to be alright?"

"She did use a dangerous amount of energy..."

"How was she able to use so much energy in the first place?"

Tsukasa slowly drifted back into conciousness as she heard voices around her. She slowly lifted her right eye to see Konata, Kagami, Misao, and Ayano standing around her. She saw a high white ceiling so she guessed that she was back in Sienthrop now. The room, as the same with all rooms in the castle, had a high ceiling, a massive bed, chairs and tables, and the marble carvings in the walls.

"She's awake!" Kagami exclaimed as she saw Tsukasas eye open.

"How did I do?" Tsukasa asked tiredly.

"You did great... You did great..." Konata replied, comforting Tsukasa.

"What happened?" Tsukasa continued questioning.

Misao looked at Ayano, questioning with her eyes as to whether she should tell Tsukasa the truth or not. Ayano nodded in return.

"Well Tsukasa, you're definitely stronger than any of us expected, you used the same amount of energy that Ayano and I would have produced, together." Misao explained.

"Kagami said several times as a joke that she didn't want you to be an old Sage but if you continue getting stronger, you have the potential to become a match for Yamamoto himself, definitely stronger than Hikasa, Misao or I." Ayano continued.

"In other words, you're now one more way we can defeat Lacinia." Konata said.

"What you did at the river was truly amazing, you took all of us by surprise since you completely froze the river and apparently, every man on the other side of the river for a quarter mile and gave severe frostbite to those from a quarter mile out to half a mile out with minor frostbites for up to a mile away. Basically you Hurt the entire Lacinian army." Kagami informed.

Tsukasa looked at the four with disbelief, she had thought that she had miserably failed when she had fallen unconcious.

"I-I produced more energy than Ayano and Misao combined...?" Tsukasa asked with disbelief.

"Yes, the amount of energy you can produce is immense, the only thing you can do now is learn more spells." Ayano replied.

Tsukasa took a moment to take all of this in. Before she had been scared of taking up the task of the river because of fear that she would not even have enough energy to lower the temperature in the river but to learn she had frozen up to a quarter mile out and just that she had hurt the entire Lacinian army was a pure shock.

"Rest up for now, the Lacinian army won't be returning today to say the least..." Ayano advised.

Tsukasa closed her eyes and returned to sleep once again.

----------------

Lightning bolts flew from the sky, fire raged, water blasted.

Yamamoto had found the girls.

"Damn it, I can't keep protecting for too long..." Hikasa muttered as she continued running and deflecting any magic that came too close.

"Shouldn't we be near the other side by now? We've been in this forest for over a day running." Patty asked while jumping over a root.

"If I guess correctly, we should be only several miles away from the other side, less then an hour." Minami informed as a giant log flew from behind the group and missed Minami by a mere feet.

"This old man's getting a bit excessive, doesn't he get tired?" Fukuya shouted with exhasperation.

"Not likely!" Yamamotos voice boomed from the forest. As if to underscore that, hundreds of arrows flew straight at the girls from the side. Hikasa once again formed a barrier on the group and the arrows bounced off harmlessly.

"You can't run! Give it up!" The voice once again exclaimed.

"Keep running!" Hikasa shouted as she sped up.

------------------

"According to our spies in the Lacinian government, they've decided to upgrade their army a little bit by sending much more men, three times as many to be exact, send in a charge of dragoons in front of everyone, more catipults, crossbow men, pikemen, and they're currently debating whether to send some dragons in or not, yes, dragons." Misao read from a paper, "And the best thing is that we don't get a single reinforcement."

"Wait dragons?!" Everyone except Ayano exclaimed.

Everyone except Tsukasa was now sitting in Sienthrops military conference room. The room, like every other room in the giant cathedral, was marble white and had an extremely high ceiling. The table was made from an ancient Mahagony tree and the chairs were made from Platinum with Obsidian embedded in the arm rests with a soft silk and cotton seating. Aside from the furniture, everyone had been given a new change of clothes. Konata had been given an exotic Dragonskin outfit to optimize speed and give a good defence against swords. Kagami had been given an upgrade of her last armor. She had been given a full Titanium knights suit to give her as much defence and be as light weight as possible, she currently had her full helm off. Miyuki wore an outfit similar to Konatas but it was made of regular Cowhide rather than Dragonskin. Misao wore a tight fitting outfit similar to Fukuyas except it was blue. Ayano had been given a brown cloak to wear as she didn't participate in direct combat. Sasunaka ad Okamoku wore chainmail under a darkblue uniform similar to what Ayano had worn before, they still kept their sabers.

"You can't be serious, I can understand the pikemen, crossbowmen, catipults, even dragoons. But dragons?!" Sasunaka raged, "They're taking war out of proportions!"

"This could potentially spell doom for us... Tsukasa probably won't be in any condition to assist for awhile, Misao and Ayano can only do so much, our own men won't last long with all those reinforcements..." Okamoku grumbled, "Our only possible chance would be our own reinforcements from Badrun and the other kingdoms."

Konata balanced a red dagger on her finger as she thoughtfully asked, "No word from Minami and the group right?"

Everyone shook their heads.

Kagami suddenly slammed her fists on the table everyone was sitting at, "Damn it, they won't even give us a half way decent chance!". She looked up at everyone at the table, "Isn't there anything we can do other than wait for reinforcements from the north?!"

"Kagami, I understand your feelings there but there isn't anything we can do as of now..." Miyuki said, "I feel just as frustrated."

"Is there any word on how long we have until they go for another strike?" Okamoku asked while taking out a piece of paper and pen.

"No definites but there is a suggestion of in a bit more than a month, they already have the border secured though so the best place would be to stay here." Misao informed as she fiddled with an arrow.

Okamoku took this in and calculated that if Minami and her group manage to reach Fijinka, the Capitol of Badrun, and they immediately send reinforcements, then at best, they would hold onto Sienthrop but most likely lose it.

Everyone groaned in resignation.

"So most likely we lose Sienthrop?" Sasunaka asked as he held his face with his hands.

"Unfortunately that's what I can guess unless we can get more reinforcements like dragons and the like ourselves..." Okamoku mourned.

Everyone looked north at Badrun, as if rooting Minami and her group on.

------------------

"Where the hell did all of them come from?!" Patty yelled as she ran.

"I bet the first one was Yamamato as well!" Fukuya yelled back. More of the fly like beasts were now chasing the girls. At least several dozen were right behind them. Aside from the flies, there were now roots shooting out of the ground occasionally at the group in an attempt to entangle them.

"How much further?!" Minami shouted at Hikasa who was blasting back any flies that got too close.

"Shouldn't be more than a few minutes away!" She shouted back. As the girls continued running, Patty saw a light from the front, "I think that's it!!"

The light was rapidly approaching and grew larger by the second. The Old Mans Beard was starting to thin rapidly and the trees were growing less dense but the monsters chasing the girls only grew.

"They're going to just continue chasing us after we leave!" Fukuya shouted.

"No they won't!" Hikasa determinedly shouted as she suddenly stopped and turned aroud.

"What are you doing Hikasa!?" Patty exclaimed as she too stopped running.

"Keep running! Don't look back and don't forget me..." Hikasa said with great determination and a slight sadness in her voice.

"What are you sayi-" But Minami couldn't finish her sentence as Hikasa blasted the other three girls nearly twenty feet out of the Forbidden Forest.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Fukuya shouted angrily as she started to run at Hikasa but she only ran into an invisible barrier at the entrance of the forest.

Hikasa looked at the girls with sad eyes and turned around. The monsters were getting closer and closer, they were less than 50 feet away. She pulled her cloak off and revealed a bag on her back. With a wave of her staff she once again stopped the flies in front of her and a root that shot out of the ground stopped at mere inches from her face. She turned around once again and shouted as the other girls all stood in place, utterly confused and shocked at Hikasas actions, it was completely out of character of her.

"Don't forget me girls, remember me and don't let me become another lost article in history. It was great to get to know all of you, even you Patty, even though I may have had a grudge against you, you were a great companion. Fukuya, you were great to have around. You created a fun atmosphere, even though it may not have seemed like it, I really enjoyed knowing you. Minami... Minami I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't met you at the fair all those years ago, you got me practicing my magics harder than ever and got me where I am today, it's thanks to you. "

"What on earth are you saying?! Get back here!" Minami and Fukuya shouted at her.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I have people to protect. You three, the people of Rubinile, the people of my small village... The world..." and with that, Hikasa turned around yet again as she took her bag off. The bag had a strange symbol on it. It was a circle with two spikes running symmetrically up and down the circle with a large pentagram encasing the circle.

"Hikasa! Snap out of it and get back here!" Patty yelled.

Hikasa only ignored her cries and took out a small book from her bag. As she turned around one last time, she gave a weak smile as a brilliantly bright white light flooded everything. Minami felt as if her eyes would shrivel out of her head and quicky turned her head away. After what seemed like forever but only a about half a minute in real time, the bright light slowly subsided. Minami looked at the entrance to the forest in great horror and shock.

--------------------

Tsukasa opened her eyes once again to feel her stomach screaming at her to get food in it. She sat up and saw her sister sitting in a chair sleeping. Trying not to disturb her, she slowly got out of bed herself and realized someone had changed her usual clothes and had put on a light blue pajama on instead, most likely done by her sister. She crept to the door and stepped out. A sudden wave of weakness swept over her and she had to lean on the wall to support herself.

"Why am I still feeling so weak?" She wondered as she tried to stand up again and walked towards where she believed the kitchen was from her memory. As she walked however, she heard a shout from behind.

"Tsukasa! What are you doing out of bed?! You should be resting!"

Tsukasa turned around to see Konata running up to her, "Tsukasa you really should be resting, Misao was saying you shouldn't really do much for another day or two."

"Haha, it's just I'm really hungry, that's how I woke up actually." Tsukasa laughed as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Well you could have told Kagami, she was in your room right?" Konata questioned.

"Well ya, but she was sleeping and I didn't want to disturb her..." Tsukasa said.

"It's ok, go back to your room, I'll get you some stuff from the kitchen." Konata offered, "What do you want?"

"Umm, do they have any sweets?" Tsukasa laughed.

"Sure! I'll get some for ya!" Konata said as she ran off to the kitchen. Tsukasa returned to her room and slipped back into bed while making sure she didn't disturb Kagami while doing so.

When Konata returned with the food, a strawberry shortcake and icecream, Misao and Ayano followed shortly behind her.

"I see you're back with us." Misao grinned.

"We were worried that you may have used so much energy that you may have used it to the point of lethalness." Ayano said with a worried smile.

"Well I feel hungry if that means anything." Tsukasa laughed as she took a bite of her cake.

"It's a good sign. Your recovery rate is tremendous as well, a normal magician who used as much energy would take nearly a week to gain enough energy to get out of bed." Misao said.

"Heh wait 'till Kagami hears that, she's going to go crazy saying she doesn't want a old hag of a sister after she dies, again." Konata giggled.

--------------------

There was no forest.

Minami, Fukuya and Patty stood where they were, no one said anything since no one could say anything. The entire forest that they had been there moments ago was no longer in front of them. There was only an endless semi-hilly plain that stretched across in front of the girls.

"Hikasa...?" Patty softly asked as tears started to form.

"Hikasa?" Fukuya asked louder, also with tears.

"H-Hikasa!?" Minami shouted as tears rolled freely from her eyes.

"Hikasa come back!" Fukuya begged as she fell to the ground, now sobbing.

"S-She sacrificed herself to save us and everyone else..." Patty whispered as her hands trembled, "She... She's gone..."

Minami pulled her sword out ad threw it towards were the forest had been before, "Damnit Hikasa!! Why did you have to do that?! Couldn't you have done something else?!". Minami was now growing hysterical, throwing her shield after her sword.

"Minami! Calm down!" Fukuya shouted as she ran and grabbed her, "Calm down.... Please..."

"How am I supposed to be calm?! One of my best friends just killed herself!!"

"She did it to save us..." Fukuya whispered with a river of tears flowing freely from her eyes, "She did it to let us carry on... We have to carry on.."

Minami fell to the ground and started beating it with clenched fists, crying while doing so.

-----------------

Author: I'm so sorry Hikasa...

Fukuya: Author... Did you have to...? Minami's very shocked and hurt at this...

Author: for the sake of plot develepmont... *Mournful Silence*

Oh by the way, I just realized that Minami and her groups horses just magically disapeared some time in the story, whoops!


	19. Taking Action

Warriors Hearth Chp19

Konata stood outside on a high balcony of Sienthrops cathedral, looking towards the Lacinian border. She wondered what was going to become of Sienthrop if Minami didn't get the word to Badrun in time.

"Not the way we wanted things to turn out eh?" Kagami asked as she came up from behind. The balcony gave a beautiful view of the land surrounding the town. The long rolling plains below seemed endless, to the point of being soothing.

"Tell me about it." Konata laughed.

Kagami walked next to Konata and rested her elbows on the guardrail, "So if we lose Sienthrop like Okamoku predicted, where would we use as the capitol of Rubinile?"

"You're asking me, the oblivious idiot of the group?" Konata laughed.

"Well it doesn't have to be you in particular." Kagami retorted.

"Then who?!" Konata said while continuing laughing.

"Gah, whatever." Kagami replied.

-------------

Minami, Patty, and Fukuya drudged on toward what they believed was Fijinka. After losing Hikasa the whole group had died inside. Minami had a unbelieving and slightly dazed look, Patty moved slowly and without light, even the usually hyperactive Fukuya had lost her energy. The girls were currently walking on a grassy plain where the wind seemed to cause ripples in the grass as wave after wave surged forward in the light breeze.

"I wonder how much further until Fijinka?" Fukuya asked.

"I would assume another days walk away..." Patty replied as she looked up towards Minami who walked infront of the two.

"Jeez... So much walking..." Fukuya muttered.

As they walked however, Fukuya saw the top of a tower up ahead.

"Hey is that a tower?" she asked,

Patty and Minami both looked up to see the tip as well, "That can't be Fijinka could it?" Minami asked.

"No, it's probably Tra, it's about a dozen miles south of Fijinka... Which means we're relatively close to the capitol." Patty said, "At least if they haven't moves entire towns while I've been gone..."

"We should rest for the night there then... It's been a long night..." Minami said.

"We're going to need some more food anyways, we're running a bit low from the last town we were in." Fukuya added.

-----------------------

Tsukasa stood in front of several dragons. The dragons were the size of a two story houses and were jet black, having giant scales and unforgiving eyes. She knew she was the only one between them and Sienthrop, she had to defeat them somehow. One of them suddenly rushed forward and tried to ram her. Tsukasa conjured a barrier in front if herself as she brought a bolt of lightning upon another one, instantly sizzling it. The rushing dragon ran right into the transparent barrier and flew backwards as it came in contact with it. Two more dragons rose into the air, flying over her and releasing a giant cloud of fire upon her. Tsukasa made a wave of water fly up from within the earth to counter it. As the dragons were drenched, Tsukasa once again sizzled the dragons with lightning. Just as she thought she was done, a dozen more dragons appeared from nowhere, one of them ramming into Tsukasa who went tumbling through the air. Tsukasa managed to decrease the impact of falling by slightly levatating, a skill she had yet to master.

"Ouch..." She muttered.

All the dragons either rose into the air or flanked around the slightly dazed Tsukasa and surrounded her. Not knowing what she should do, she tried to kill them one by one. It didn't work though, they all incinerated where she stood with more balls of fire.

"I-I can't do it..." Tsukasa cried as she sat huddled in the barrier she had brought up just in time.

"Tsukasa. Tsukasa!"

Tsukasa continued to cry.

"Tsukasa! Wake up! Why are you crying?!"

"Huh?"

Tsukasa opened her eyes again to see herself still inside Sienthrops cathedral, still in bed, still recovering. Her sister was looking over her with worried eyes, along with Miyuki and Konata.

"Are you alright? You started crying and i got a bit worried so I got Miyuki and Konata here..." Kagami said. The other two girls looked over her shoulder with equally worried eyes.

"Y-Yeah, sorry I got you worried... Nightmare..." Tsukasa replied, wiping off the tears.

"You sure?" Konata asked.

"Yeah..."

"What was it about? The dream." Miyuki asked as she sat down on a chair.

Tsukasa started to explain the dream on how she had been fending off dragons and they had eventually overpowered her, causing her to cry as she had failed.

"Well it's ok, that won't really happen since we'll all be there together if anything." Miyuki comforted.

"Thanks." Tsukasa smiled.

-------------------

"Crap."

It was one word that summarized the situation Minami, Patty, and Fukuya were in. Tra had seemed normal from a distance and when its tower was the only thing visible, but now the girls were closer, it was a completely different story.

Dragons and other unnamed beasts stood all around Tra, a group of several dozen men in armor could be seen before the beasts. The men all wore silver gray armor with full helmets on that had high plumes. The town itself seemed rather fine, houses and tall buildings were still visible from where Minami stood. There were giant bat like animals the size of men and griffins the size of cows along with what resembled the King Pfalka dragons that the group had seen earlier, dead and burning but these looked smaller. They were dark green with large wings and didn't seem capable of breathing fire. They were only the size of horses. Several dead beasts already lay on the ground.

"We better try helping them, I would guess they're going for Fijinka as well." Fukuya urgently said as she set her bow and rushed forward. Minami looked over at Patty who nodded and the two quickly followed Fukuya. The men, presumably knights or the like, seeing the three girls tried to wave them away but Fukuya only ignored their waves and shot an arrow into the head of one of the bat like creatures. It never had a chance, it simply crumpled down to the ground. The other beasts, seeing it die, turned around at the three girls. Taking the chance of distraction, the knights, and there seemed to be a few pikemen within their ranks, rushed forward, plowing at least half of them down. Minami reached one of the dragons who had it's back turned to her as it was trying to claw one of the pikemen. She raised her sword high and cut it down the back. It roared in pain as it toppled sideways.

"Thanks!" the man thanked as he went to slay another one of the beasts.

Minami looked around quickly and saw Patty on top of a griffin holding it's mane and stabbing it with her kunais. She then jumped off after stabbing a needle like thing into its back. The griffin started to give chase but it slowed down and simply collapsed.

"What the heck did you do to that thing?" Minami yelled.

"A poison, it paralyzes the subject in seconds." Patty replied as she ran towards a bat like beast.

The fight was obviously in the humans favor, the remaining beasts were slowly retreating back the way Minami and her group had come. Several men gave chase to the fleeing beasts but most stayed behind. Dead bodies littered the ground, both man and beast. Most of the blood spilled belonged to the beasts though. One of the men walked up to Minami. She saw it was the man she had saved.

"Hey, thanks for earlier." The pikeman said as he lifted the visor on his helmet. The man had large, blue, all seeing eyes with medium black hair and a compassionate smile.

"No problem..." she replied cooly, matching his state of calmness.

"Who you got there?" Fukuya asked as she ran up to Minami, putting her bow on her back as she ran.

"Oh, handsome man." Fukuya remarked when she stopped next to Minami and saw his face.

"Thank you ladies for the compliments, but more importantly, thanks for the help you just gave but we really must get going back to the capitol, Fijinka is probably under attack as we speak. We were sent out further south for reports of beasts." the man said, "Naji Motohi by the way, pleasure meeting you."

"Wait, we need to get to Fijinka as well, would you mind if we accompanied you?" Patty asked as she trotted back.

"Why do you need to come to the capitol? Right now you can't do anything there aside from fight."

"Well we aren't exactly common travellers, we come from Sienthrop, down in Rubinile." Fukuya said.

"Whatever for?"

"We all know Laciena right? They decided to be a pain by invading Rubinile, except they have the entire western kingdoms with them and Rubinile needs help." Patty informed.

"That sounds a bit ridiculous."

"Would it help to let you know we lost a friend in the Forbidden Forest and we managed to get rid of the Forest?" Minami asked, her eyes tearing slightly at the memory of Hikasas final moments.

"You... Got rid of the forest..." Naji said with extreme doubt.

"Ya, go check it if you want, it's gone." Fukuya assured, "and losing a close friend doing it."

"This is all very sudden... You can come but you probably won't be able to talk to the king or anyone of importance anytime soon, they're probably all in hiding by now from the reports we've gotten about Fijinka. The bulk of the army was down south for riot control so only a small number was there to defend Fijinka..." Naji informed. He then turned around and shouted at a knight checking the human casualties, "Hiroki!"

The man looked up, waved, and ran towards the group while hefting his sword on his shoulder, "Ya, wassup."

"These girls want to come along to Fijinka, they gave pretty good reasons if they aren't lying."

"Whats that supposed to mean?"

"It means they're coming along, that alright with you?"

"Ok if you say so..." Hiroki agreed as he turned to the girls, "Hiroki Wakama, a pleasure."

"Same." The three girls replied.

-----------------

Naji looked at the back of the three girls as they walked towards the town talking.

"One of them catch your eye?" Hiroki nudged as he stood next to Naji. He took his helmet off completely and revealed his long blonde hair and black eyes. He smiled at Naji, "Hey you might even have a chance at them."

"My deepest apologies for dissapointing your highness but I have no interest in them in that way." Naji said sarcastically.

Naji and Hiroki were the captains of the Badrunian Special Defense Force, the elite group of soldiers who dealt with the rather more difficult scenarios. They had also been childhood friends and had grown up being competitive with each other, which was how they got where they were today. They were the youngest men to become the captains in history, becoming the captains at age fifteen. Naji had lost his parents when he had been a child to a plague that had swept through Badrun about a dozen years ago and had been on his own ever since. Hiroki grew up being the clown of the group wherever he went, always telling jokes or making people laugh but when neccesary, he could be as serious as Naji, who was generally serious.

"So what's the deal with them? They pop out of nowhere, basically do half the work in sweeping up those beasts, and ask to go to the Capitol, not that I got a problem with that but..." Hiroki said as he sheathed his sword. The sword was a large one handed sword, similar to what Minami used but slightly longer.

"Don't know but they're pretty good at fighting if that means anything to you." Naji replied, "Come on, we should get going. We can't afford wasting too much time, get a quick casualty count and gather everyone up, we're moving out in less than an hour."

"Sure."

------------------

"Alright, I think we have things in control for the time being and you girls just sitting around seems slightly counterproductive." Sasunaka said as everyone gathered at the conference table yet again. However this time Tsukasa was attending as she had been strong and well enough to get up and move around.

"So, we were thinking since sitting around doesn't do anything, if you girls could go up north and start helping Minami and her group out." Okamoku continued, "Nothing bad should happen, we would still have Ayano and Misao here so..."

"So you want us leaving Sienthrop and going north?" Kagami asked.

"Basically."

"What about Tsukasa? She's strong enough to attend this meeting but I don't think she can run around for miles upon miles yet..." Konata asked, "Tsukasa?"

"Huh? Oh, umm ya I don't think I can do a lot of moving around yet... I feel much stronger but not back to normal yet." Tsukasa informed.

"We do have means of travel other than walking..." Okamoku said in a slightly pained voice.

"Oh ya..." Konata laughed.

"When would we be leaving?" Miyuki asked.

"In a few days, possibly in two." Sasunaka informed, "That should also give some time for Tsukasa to regain a bit more of her energy."

Everyone nodded in approval.

--------------------

Author: Gah, another plot hole... Where the heck did Konatas groups horses go?

Konata: Didn't we leave them at the town we stopped at before teleporting back to Flatine?

Author: Oh ya... But wouldn't Sasunaka get a bit annoyed at that?

Kagami: Who cares?


	20. Retaking Control

Warriors Hearth Chp20

(Chp 20!!! W007!!!)

Authors message

(skip if you don't want to read a boring thank you speech)

It's been a rather long and bumpy road for me with this story, getting out of the "mood" every now and then, plot holes (Then again a lot of things have them)(But hey, the worst one I've had is are horses mysteriously disapearing... I think...), and plain writers block.

For anyone who has continued reading this story up to this point, I consider you a true fan for me. I know the early chapters weren't exactly great, getting boring around chapters 5-8, cheesy plots in the beginning (Prophecy? Come on, how much more cliché can you get?), and bad writing skills at the beginning. But if you continued reading, all the more reason I consider you a true fan.

When I started writing this story, I was still a newbie to the world of writing. Heck, I'm still a newbie, but I've definitely improved. Punctuation, writing style, descriptions within the story, dialogue, and the other million things. (Hey I'm doing good for a 14 year old)(I've only been writing for about half a year)

It's a pleasure to write stories whether it be original fiction of fanfiction. By writing, I feel like I can put my mind to use, to some kind of good other than 1337 pwning at C.O.D. 4 or 5(ps3) ^_^

Anyways, thank you, the readers, because without you my works would be as useless as a twig in a forest... Ok that was bad... I would be as useless as a useless thing :P(What?!)

Oh to anyone who has read my other story, "The Lost Dimension", I'm rewriting it from scratch. I'm probably going to change the title as well, no idea what though... I'll think of something. The first story really sucked (It hurt to read...) as far as grammar and cliché went but with my improved skills, I hope it can be as successful as this story. (Sadly I haven't gotten too many reviews on either of them)(Heck, I'm not even sure if this story is successful)

Oh also, I'm back home now so I'll update regularly.

Anyways enough of my pointless ramblings, enjoy chapter20

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Ok the thank you speech is over

----------------------------

Warriors Hearth Chp20

"This is worse than I thought!" Fukuya yelled as she shot down a griffin with her bow from the doorway of a building.

The girls, along with Naji's force, had reached Fijinka, only to find it being overrun with more of the same beasts they had in Tra. Fijinka didn't have an impressive Cathedral or a giant moat surrounding the town like Sienthrop, but it did have a large fortress in the center of town. According to Naji and Hiroki, the king and any member of the royal house had escaped into underground strongholds for now.

"Thanks for stating the obvious!" Patty shouted from a roof top as she jumped off and ran to an injured bat like beast, finishing it off with a quick stab of her kunai.

The town itself wasn't in top notch condition to say the least. Several buildings had collapsed from griffins or dragons falling on them, while other parts of town were impassible with dead bodies or debris. Surprisingly enough, fire didn't seem to be a immediate threat. The fortress had archers jammed into the towers, shooting down as many beasts as they could. However, close quarters combat reigned the heaviest against the beasts as most of them prowled the grounds, attempting to rid the ground of the human defenders.

"Where is Naji and his group anyways?" Minami yelled as she ran back into sight of the other two girls, "Lost sight of them a bit back."

"Other side of town probably. They'll most likely split up into two groups and slowly go around the fortress, clearing the town out as they do so." Fukuya yelled as she ran to Minami.

"Surprised you thought of something that actually made sense." Minami chuckled.

"I'm pretty sure that wasn't a compliment." Fukuya said with narrowed but humored eyes.

The three girls continued fighting the beasts in an attempt to regain control of Fijinka.

-------------------

"They're retreating!" One of Najis men shouted from a roof.

"Keep it up! Push them out!" Hiroki shouted from Najis side.

Najis forces were gathered in the market district at the moment, cleaning out the beasts that remained. The infestation seems to be several hundred beasts large, over half of them already slain or escaped. Once a busy area of Fijinka, the market district was one giant rectagular clearing with stalls lined up and down the entire expanse. The stalls were still there but the once glammering scenery with every item on display was now replaced with a ghost of it's former self. Broken down stalls, flipped chairs and tables, and the lack of human activity save Naji and his forces.

"We should be able to meet back up with the girls on the other side of town pretty soon at this rate." Naji muttered as he impaled a charging dragon with his six-foot pike.

"What's that?" Hiroki asked who was standing only a few feet from him.

"Nothing, just wondering what's going to happen." Naji replied.

The fight seemed to improve by the minute. The capitol, without doubt, would be reclaimed by the humans and was simply a matter of time. The market district itself also seemed to be clearing out rapidly, only several beasts remained in it's vincity, most of them probably retreating towards the other side of town, where Minami was.

The fight continued on for several more minutes, finally the last Griffin was seen flying away towards the other side of town.

"Come on don't let then get away!" Naji yelled at his men. He was replied with a fierce battle cry from his men.

----------------------------

"How you feeling Tsukasa?" Konata asked as the white stallion underneath her trotted along the endless, rolling Rubinilian Plains.

"I'm feeling pretty good." Tsukasa replied as her brown stallion trotted behind Konata's.

The four girls rode along on more of Rubiniles sea of green that it was so famous for. Having left only that morning, they were still within walking distance of Sienthrop. On their way out of Sienthrop, King Sakimoto had told them to head towards Hotra, east of Badrun and accesible directly from Rubinile, it was the next best place to start getting more allies. As of now, no one had gotten a single word from Minami. Everyone was sure she had simply lost her mean of communication and nothing was wrong but the thoughts were still there.

"While we ourselves may be out of the reaches of the Lacinian forces, we should keep in mind the fact that Sienthrop is in a constant threat of invasion. We should try not to slack off and try to be as swift and efficient as possible while keeping Tsukasas slight physical weakness at the moment in mind." Miyuki chimed in from the very back while her grey stallion snorted.

"I'm still not sure if she should be riding..." Kagami said with a hint of concern in her voice as she petted her black stallion who trotted next to Tsukasa.

According to Misaos spies in Laciena, the Lacinians were still in no condition to start another invasion, much less one on the Capitol. However, time was of the essence and Ayano had predicted about a month or two at the latest before the Lacinians would be back up to peek performance.

"Speaking of Tsukasa, have you learned any new magics like growing three heads?" Konata asked.

"What do you think this is? A fairy tale?" Kagami asked.

"Ehehe, no I haven't learned anything like that." Tsukasa replied.

------------------

As Minami sliced at a dragon, to her vast relief, she saw the shape of another human in armor come into view around the corner of the road ahead of her.

"Minami?!" the man shouted.

"Ya, I hear you!" Minami yelled back to the man. The man ran over to Minami as he removed his helmet and she saw it was Hiroki.

Naji and his group had finally swept around the town to where Minami and the girls were. Minami and the girls themselves had moved a bit in town and were currently in the resedential section. Houses lined either side of the road and the scent of blood filled the air.

"Where's everyone else?" Minami asked. As she sheathed her sword and put her shield away.

"Right behind me. Now where are the other two girls?" Hiroki questioned.

"Clearing out a few houses that we saw a beast or two flee into. Surprising that the beasts managed to squeeze through the door." Minami replied.

As the two stood talking, Minami saw from the corner of her eyes Naji come around the same corner Hiroki had come from.

"Minami! Hiroki!" Naji yelled as he ran forward and set his pike forward and charged.

"What?!" Minami and Hiroki exclaimed, seeing the pike in hand.

However, before Naji could get close, both Hiroki and Minami felt a presence behind them.

"Minami! Watch out!" Hiroki shouted as a chimera the size of a large wagon was seen swiping at Minami. As Hiroki pushed Minami out of the way, a giant paw was seen hitting Hiroki straight in the chest.

Hiroki went flying backwards and flew into the side of a building. He grunted and tried to stand back up, only to fall back down in a yell of pain.

"Hiroki!" Minami and Naji yelled at the same time as Naji stopped.

But before Hiroki could reply, the chimera kicked Hiroki with it's hind legs.

Hiroki didn't move.

In a sudden storm of adrenaline, fury, rage, and loss, Naji rushed forward once again and Minami rushed forward this time as well. As Naji reached the chimera, he impaled the beast in it's chest with his long pike while Minami slashed at all of it's legs. The beast fell onto it's knees and roared in pain while it's snake like tail tried to bite Minami who was running back towards Naji, who in turn, had retrieved his pike and was preparing to throw his pike at the beasts head. Minami reached Naji and threw her sword in a straight and deadly line, right at the beasts head just as Naji threw his pike.

Both weapons hit at the same time in either eye.

The beast didn't even roar, it instantaniously died and toppled over to it's side and lay unmoving.

As soon as Naji knew the beast was dead, he ran straight for Hiroki who stood a few feet behind the dead carcass,

"Hiroki!" Naji shouted at his fallen friend.

Minami ran forward while sheathing her sword and knelt down beside Hiroki. She felt for his pulse as Naji covered his face with his hands.

"We need to get him to a doctor as soon as we can." Minami urgently said, "He's alive but there's no telling what kind of internal wounds he has, I wouldn't be surprised if he had internal bleeding or a broken rib or two."

Just then, the rest of Najis forces came around the same corner that Hiroki and Naji had come from. They all stared at the dead beast and Hiroki.

"Dont just stand there, help us get him to a doctor!" Minami yelled at the soldiers.

-------------------------

"Yutaka, come here for a second." a doctor said. Everyone who had been injured during the invasion of Fijinka had been brought into the underground stronghold of Fijinka.

Yutaka Kobayakawa worked mainly as an apprentice doctor in Fijinka, helping injured people and taking care of anyone with any kind medical problem. Her loving and compassionate, yet slighty frail aura seemed to fit her profession. She wore a clean white drab that covered her entire body.

The room in which she was working in was about the size of two living rooms and was filled with a dozen beds made from aluminum.

At the moment, almost everyone being treated were from the Badrunian Special Defence Force who had been injured while repelling the attack.

"Coming!" she yelled as she ran to where the doctor was. This one had suffered several minor cuts on his body after a building had collapsed on him.

"It hurts..." the man muttered as the doctor disinfected the wound.

"Supposed to." he replied, "Get some bandages and go to the other room and get some more pain killer, we're running a bit low here."

"Ok." Yutaka replied as she went towards the door. The hallway had been, like the rest of the underground stronghold, had been dug into and reinforced with steel bars and walls several decades ago. The hallways were relatively bland, having only clean silver-gray steel as the wall and doors. This particular hallway also happened to be the longest hallway in the complex, being over a 200 feet long.

As she proceeded towards the other room however, she saw several men dressed in Badrunian armor rush towards her from down the long hallway towards her carrying another man with armor on a makeshift stretcher. She also saw one female dressed in slightly different armor and the crest on her shield seemed familiar but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Hey doc, could you help our Captain? He got hurt pretty badly!" one of the men holding the stretcher shouted.

"Uh ok, follow me." Yutaka shouted back. She waited until the men came close and turned around to lead them to the room with the doctor.

"I'm sure Hiroki will be ok Naji..." the lady trotting with the men said.

"I hope so..." a man replied as he continued trotting.

"Wait, Captains Naji and Hiroki from the Special Defense Force?" Yutaka exclaimed.

"Yes, that's us." the man, most likely Naji, said.

"Well we should hurry!" Yutaka exclaimed again as she started running towards the medical room.

--------------------

Author: Sorry for the extremely short chapter (at least compared to my other chapters) but you all better be grateful, I got my Itouch (what I write my stories on) confiscated four fricking times while writing the last two chapters... Lemme' tell ya, camp = boring and BS

Kagami: But didn't you choose to to go?

Author: HA! Heck no! My mom told me a week before I left that I was going...

Naji: I still don't understand...

Konata: When do we characters ever?

Author: Hey hey...


	21. Afterlife?

Warriors Hearth Chp21

No matter what way you looked at her, you could tell Tsukasa struggled to keep up. Riding endlessly along the rolling Rubinilian plains on horseback for hours upon hours certainly did not help either. The rest of the girls noticed and tried to slow down and ease up for the sake of Tsukasa but she always seemed to fall short.

"Are you absolutely sure you can keep going?" Kagami would ask frequently while Konata and Miyuki would look with concerned faces.

"I'm fine Onee-chan, just a little tired." Tsukasa would always respond.

But after endless worry and struggle, the border to Hotra, the kingdom next to Badrun, finally came into view. Unlike Badrun which had high walls the height of two men on top of each other, Hotra trusted the border with a large bog that covered a large percentage of the border to Laciena. There were only a few solid entrances that were accessible and stationed guards at these borders. The guardhouse could possibly have been mistaken for a commoners home if it were not stationed right at the border.

The first thing the girls noticed wrong with the guardhouse was the lack of guards outside.

Although it was possible that all of the guards on duty may have gone inside at the same time but there was usually at least one man on watch no matter what kingdom.

As the girls approached closer, kagami noticed another thing wrong with the guardhouse.

Blood.

There were great stains of large blackening dried blood on the walls and even some from the inside on the windows. To say there was a struggle would be an understatement.

"Uhh... What happened here?" Konata asked as they approached even closer, close enough to see the individual shapes of the dried blood.

"We're all wondering the same thing, don't worry." Kagami assured.

"I think we should check it out..." Miyuki suggested.

Konata then jumped off her horse while asking Tsukasa if she could keep watch of the horses for a bit. Tsukasa nodded as Kagami and Miyuki got off as well and handed the reigns to Tsukasa. All three girls on foot drew their weapons as they walked towards the guardhouse. A few swords lay on the ground, hidden by the unkept grass. All of them covered in blood stains.

"Looks like someone came around on a rampage..." Konata remarked as she poked a helmet with her shortsword.

"Come on let's go inside and see what's wrong." Kagami said as she walked to the door, her longsword in hand while she kept her two-hander sword on her back.

The three girls, after checking to see Tsukasa was alright, stood by the door cautiously. Miyuki drew her bow and aimed at the door as konata stood outside it with her swortsword in hand. Kagami then put her hand on the door and slowly turned the knob and pushed the door inwards. From inside the room came a gut wrenching smell, the sickly smell of rotting bodies.

All three girls instictively covered their noses and mouths with a hand while miyuki did so with her arm. The guardhouse seemed to have only one large room as the room didn't have anythkng except a few large tables and chairs and the room itself seemed to be the size of the house. Konata quickly dashed in and crouched behind a upturned desk while kagami followed suit. Lastly miyuki slowly walked in, her bow still drawn.

"I was pretty sure but the place is deserted except for the bodies and decomposers..." Miyuki muttered as she eased the bow back to it's original position.

"I'm going to go check upstairs, there was blood on the windows on the second floor." Konata announced a she proceeded to look for the staircase leading upstairs. Kagami and Miyuki nodded as they started looking around the room, hoping to find some clue as to what had happened.

Konata walked to the back I the room to find a door, hidden mostly in shadows, and opened it. She looked into the dark room and figured there was probably nothing in there and proceeded in. As she felt around for the stairs, her sixth sense of danger felt another presence. She instantly stopped moving and dare not move a muscle. She strained her ears to hear any movement but the only thing she heard was Miyuki and Kagami walking around in the main room.

Finally after several minutes of ear straining, she decided to proceed slowly and try to get upstairs. As she found the stairs and starts climbing slowly, she felt the presence move slightly. Not towards her but...

Konata quickly drew one of her daggers and threw it at the ceiling direcly above her. She was answered by a shrill scream as a figure fell onto her. She quickly pushed it off up the stairs and quickly ran down the stairs again and opened the door, letting light filter in. As she opened the door, Kagami came stumbling in as she yelled out, "Konata!?"

"I'm fine, get a light in here." She ordered but Miyuki was a step ahead as she ran up to the door with a lamp in hand.

What lay midway up the stairs wasn't human, it certainly wasn't anything they had ever seen either. The thing twitched as the light fell upon it's bleak, open, dark eyes. The thing was about the size of a monkey and it even had a tail... In fact...

"D-Doesn't that look like a... monkey?!" Kagami stammered. Indeed the thing did look like a monkey except that it's skin was leathery and it seemed to have been... Deceased.

Konata quickly looked at the ceiling to see that it wasn't finished and still had wooden beams running across.

"No wonder it was above me..." Konata murmmered.

As the girls stared at the still twitching monkey-like thing, footsteps were heard above and everyone drew their weapons once more as Konata took the lamp. Miyuki drew her bow and aimed it at the top of the stairs as the door slowly creaked open.

"D-Dont hurt us, we're human!" a terrified young voice called out.

"Come out." Kagami yelled.

"T-Theres one more person inside." the male voice stammered.

"Get him out too." Konata ordered.

Two frail looking men with armor and pale faces with dark circles under their eyes slowly walked out with their hands outstretched to show they held nothing.

"What the heck happened to you guys?!" Kagami gasped as she saw the condition of the men. They looked thin like they had not eaten in a while. They also seemed to be paranoid with fear and it was obvious they had not slept any time soon. Their armor suggested they were two of the guards.

Suddenly one man broke down sobbing while the other patted him on the back.

The three girls lowered their weapons and Miyuki ran out to get Tsukasa and her medical supplies.

"You guys look like you just survived an onslaught of ghouls..." Konata said jokingly...

Suddenly both men looks up with fear in their eyes at the word 'ghoul'.

"Tell us what happened here... The guards, the blood, and that dead... Thing halfway up the stairs." Kagami asked.

-----------------------------

"Will he be alright Doc?" Naji asked worriedly as the petite doctor with pink hair looked over the famed Captain Hiroki. Hiroki had been taken to a special room reserved for any official or otherwise important people. The only people that had been allowed in had been Naji and Minami

"He has minor internal bleeding but amazingly, his ribs seem to be fine, even after what he endured from that chimera. Unfortunately he may or may not survive... The only way he can positively survive would be the implication of white magic but there are so few mages and yet even fewer who practice white magic..." the doctor informed, "We can attempt a surgery but with our limited supplies and our lack of any effective procedure, it would be a risk that should be avoided at all costs unless absolutely neccesary..."

"How long does he have?" Minami asked worriedly.

"Anywhere between 24 and 72 hours, it completely depends on how his body naturally recovers as well as the exact severety of the internal bleeding." the doctor answered.

"Minami, we need to find a white magician..." Naji urgently said.

"B-But that's gonna take a lot longer than 72 hours!" Minami stammered.

"Please Minami, even trying is good but I can't stand just stand around watching my best friend waiting to die, please." Naji asked. For the first time ever, Minami saw a weakness... No, not a weakness but a pleading man of strength.

"Yeah, we can't just sit around can we?" Minami finally replied.

"Umm... Now I think of it, I may know where a white Mage resides in Badrun..." the young doctor nervously said.

Both Naji and Minami looked at the doctor.

"W-Well it's technically not inside Badrun but it's not part of any other kingdom either... It just has a pro-Badrunian attitude that most people consider them badrunian."

"Go on..." Naji asked.

"The people call themselves the Mysidians... Mysidia is said to raise the most magicians and some of the best as well..." the pink haired girl continued.

"However the only way it would be possible to get there and back with enough time is to operate on Hiroki... Except there's the risk of making his condition even worse. The risk isn't as bad as trying to fix the problem but just delaying it is risky enough..." the girl finished.

"Do it." Naji replied at once, "Knowing Hiroki for nearly all my life, I know he would take a risky success at life then take a non-risky but an eventually guarenteed death." Naji said

The doctor looked at the two fighters in front of them and then at their fallen comrade. She knew she couldn't sit around and do nothing.

"Would you mind if I came along? There are a few paths to Mysidia most people don't know that will make things a lot easier." the doctor said.

"I guess... In that case what's your name? I don't think calling you doc is going to work." Minami chuckled.

"Yutaka, Yutaka Kobayakawa."

"Thanks Yutaka."

---------------------------

"It happened a few nights ago... We really didn't know what was happening until too late." one if the guards, Tsuzan said.

"They came while we were all in bed so there had only been one man on duty while another two were inside so only three men were on active duty. In all there were two dozen men. The first thing we noticed was the screaming which woke us up." Dami, the other guard, continued.

"At first we thought they were screwing around because that particular shift had messed around their last shift. But soon the screaming intensified and all three started screaming horrendously." Tsuzan continued.

"We all got out of bed and some of us woke up the guards still asleep while the others grabbed their weapons and ran downstairs. Tsuzan and I were one of the guys waking up the rest of the dozen men." Dami sighed, "soon the screams got louder as the men who went downstairs started screaming as well."

Both men looked down at the floor and wiped their eyes.

"After we had gotten everyone up, the screaming had died down a bit as some finally shut up, we figured they had either taken control or had been put out of their misery. As we headed down the stairs, we saw the lead man get pulled forward when he reached the bottom steps... It was horrible... One second he was there and the next second, a hideous looking arm grabbed him." Tsuzan quietly said as he recalled the instant the hand had reached forward.

"We instantly knew that what we were facing wasn't a human. The next lead man jumped out with his sword drawn and slashed the thing that had reached forward... As we all filed out, in the darkness the things looked like a regular peasant... But there were animals as well but what really got our senses perking was the smell. it smelled like a morgue that had just seen a serial killer go around it..." Dami continued for his friend who sat still, "We soon slated both man and animal but we had also taken heavy casualties... Out of the two dozen men that had stood only fifteen minutes ago, only five stood. As we gathered casualties and disposed of the bodies, a man came out of the bogs."

"At first we thought it was a lost man who had stumbled into the bogs and miraculously emerged but soon we saw he had cult like clothes on, a dark robe and a hood. The man suddenly threw his hood off and shouted at us, 'The days of mortal reign will end today!' and he muttered something. Next thing we know, all the dead beings we had slated a minute ago stirred and about half of the slayed beings rose and starts for the remaining five of us. Two men were killed because we were so shocked that our reaction was sluggish. The remaining three retreated into the house and up the stairs where we barricaded ourselves in and tried to figure out what the hell was happening... The endless pounding on the doors and window drove the third man insane and he killed himself, his last word being 'I would rather die and join the souls in purgatory rather than endure their anger'. When day light came, the things all disapeared into the bog, we saw them shamble off into the bog through the window. It continued every night and happened again last night..." Tsuzan spoke again.

The three girls sat on the beds upstairs where all five people sat at the moment in deep silence. After their insistence on locking the door, they had sat down where Dami and Tsuzan proceeded to explain their state. Finally after a short silence, Konata spoke up, "So your blaming Necromancy?"

"What else could cause the dead bodies behind us to rise up?" Dami asked.

"But isn't necromancy a myth?" Kagami asked.

"Kagami, we've been out of Laciena for months, can't you get used to the idea that things that were impossible in Laciena might be possible outside?" Konata asked in exhasperation.

"Well if the undead return nightly, then we should head out as soon as we can, it's still noon so we can probably get to the nearest town in Hotra by night." Miyuki suggested.

The men both nodded and stood up. Kagami noticed as they stood up that the looks of paranoid fear had eased up on their faces and the dark circles seemed to lighten up after they had spoken to the girls. All five heads outside to where Tsukasa sat on the horses with the reigns in hand.

"Did you need the medical supplies?" Tsukasa asked as they walked towards her.

"Not really but it didn't hurt either." Miyuki replied.

"Can one of you ride horses?" Konata asked asteyreached the horses.

"Yea, I can." Dami said.

"You and Tsuzan share a horse, I'll ride with Kagami." Konata offered.

"Making up her mind without asking me?" Kagami sighed.

--------------------------

Fukuya and patty stood in front of Minami, Naji and the doctor with hands on their hips while the group stood outside by the front gates of Fijinka.

"You could at least tell us you're going to be gone, we thought you two died and were searching the whole time." Fukuya pouted.

"In case you didn't get it, we weren't exactly in a position to stop and look for you two." Minami answered, "and also, the doctor here is coming with us."

"I understand but there were plenty of other soldiers, you in particular didn't need to go Minami." Fukuya continued arguing.

"Just drop it Fukuya." Patty sighed, "So we need to did a white Mage in Mysidia and Doc here can help us find one?"

"Well actually I know a White Mage in Mysidia, it's a long story..." Yutaka clariffied, "Yutaka Kobayakawa by the way."

"Well thanks for the help." Patty thanked.

"I know I may sound a bit selfish possibly but could we get a move on? Hiroki's going to be on borrowed time until we get that Mage here so..." Naji interupted.

"Alright alright, let's get going then." Fukuya laughed, "Off to Mysidia!!"

-----------------------------

Author: Sorry for the short ending, I just wanted the scene in which the group gathers and leaves for Mysidia, that way I can jump right into them going to Mysidia starting next chapter.

Konata: Mysidia sounds familiar...

Author: Probably cuz it's from Final Fantasy

Konata: Huh what's that?

Author: Uhh never mind.


End file.
